On Sunday alone, more than 1,000 U.S. flights and more than 2,500 international ones were canceled.
On one of the year’s busiest weekends for flying, airlines canceled thousands of flights as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus hit flight crews. The disruptions left thousands of travelers frustrated. In all, about 2,000 U.S. flights were canceled on Saturday and Sunday of the Christmas holiday weekend, with roughly 3,000 more grounded globally, according to FlightAware, which provides aviation data. On Sunday alone, more than 1,100 U.S. flights and about 1,700 additional ones across the world were canceled. While some of the groundings were caused by perennial problems like bad weather and maintenance issues, several airlines acknowledged that the current wave of Covid-19 cases, which has risen in the United States to a level not seen since last winter, contributed significantly. A JetBlue spokesman, for instance, said the airline had “seen an increasing number of sick calls from Omicron.” Eleven percent of JetBlue flights,5 percent of Delta Air Lines flights,5 percent of United Airlines flights and 2 percent of American Airlines flights on Sunday had been canceled by the afternoon, according to FlightAware. Southwest Airlines canceled just 63 flights, or 1 percent, according to FlightAware, and the cancellations were caused entirely by weather, said Dan Landson, a Southwest spokesman.
