Airlines Cancel 1,600 U.S. Xmas-Week Flights as Covid Cases Surge

Airlines scrapped more than 1,600 U.S. flights for one of the busiest travel weekends in the year, stranding passengers during the Christmas holiday, as surging Covid infections led to crippling air-crew shortages, a Bloomberg report said.

According to the report, the global tally of dropped flights exceeded 5,400 trips for Friday through Sunday, according to data tracker FlightAware.com. China Eastern had the most cancellations, and the most-affected airport was in the Chinese city of Xi’an, where the Beijing government cracked down under its Covid Zero policy after an outbreak.

Delta Air Lines Inc.’s 479 cancellations for the holiday weekend led the U.S. industry, FlightAware data showed, closely followed by United Airlines Holdings Inc., with 474 flights erased from its holiday itineraries. JetBlue Airways Corp. chopped 50 flights on Friday, or 7% of its schedule, and plans at least 120 cancellations on Saturday, according to FlightAware.

For Christmas Day specifically, some 820 U.S. flights have been scrapped so far.

According to the Bloomberg, the travel snarls underscored the reach of the omicron Covid variant that is driving U.S. case counts higher, increasing nearly sixfold in only a week to become the dominant domestic strain. United said in an email Thursday that a jump in omicron was limiting the availability of flight crews and ground personnel. Delta attributed its disruptions to a mix of reasons, including Covid.

Elsewhere, British discounter EasyJet said it had canceled some flights between the U.K. and France and Germany for the rest of December, following the introduction of restrictions on U.K. travelers to those countries, the Bloomberg report said.

At least three major airlines have reported cancelling dozens of flights as illnesses largely tied to the omicron variant of Covid-19 take a toll on flight crew numbers during the busy holiday travel season, an AP report said.

According to the report, Germany-based Lufthansa said Friday that it was cancelling a dozen long-haul transatlantic flights over the Christmas holiday period because of a “massive rise” in sick leave among pilots.

The cancellations on flights to Houston, Boston and Washington come despite a “large buffer” of additional staff for the period, the report said.

The airline says it couldn’t speculate on whether Covid-19 infections or quarantines were responsible because it was not informed about the sort of illness. Passengers were booked on other flights.

Lufthansa said in a statement that “we planned a very large buffer for the vacation period, the AP reported.

But this was not sufficient due to the high rate of people calling in sick.”

In the US, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said they had to cancel dozens of Christmas Eve flights because of staff shortages tied to omicron.

“The nationwide spike in omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation,” United said in a statement to several news outlets.

“As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport.”

The airline said it was cancelling over 100 flights and working to rebook as many people as possible.

Delta said it cancelled around 90 flights Friday because of the possibility of bad weather and the impact the omicron after it had “exhausted all options and resources — including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying.”

It said in a statement to several outlets that it was trying to get passengers to their destinations quickly.

The cancellations come as coronavirus cases driven by the new variant further squeeze staffing at hospitals, police departments, supermarkets and other critical operations struggling to maintain a full contingent of front-line workers.

Countries including Spain and the UK have reduced the length of Covid-19 quarantines to ease staffing shortages by letting people return to work sooner after testing positive or being exposed to the virus.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian was among those who have called on the Biden administration to take similar steps or risk further disruptions in air travel.