Of the practically 2,200 canceled flights, greater than 700 had been inside, into or out of the US, based on FlightAware. Greater than 3,000 flights are delayed.
The cancellations come on the busiest time of 12 months for air journey. The US Transportation Safety Administration stated it screened thousands and thousands of individuals every day over the vacation weekend, peaking at 2.19 million vacationers on Thursday, December 23. On Wednesday, extra individuals handed via TSA checkpoints than on the identical day in 2019.
Saturday air journey was a bit slower due to the flight cancellations: Greater than 1.53 million individuals handed via safety checkpoints Saturday.
“The nationwide spike in Omicron instances this week has had a direct impression on our flight crews and the individuals who run our operation,” stated a United memo obtained by CNN.
“We apologize to our prospects for the delay of their vacation journey plans,” Delta stated in a press release. “Delta persons are working laborious to get them to the place they must be as shortly and as safely as potential on the following accessible flight.”
German airline Lufthansa stated it should cancel 10% of its winter flight schedule because the pandemic continues to hit the aviation trade.
In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung final week, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr stated that as a result of “a pointy drop in bookings” the airline must cancel 33,000 flights from mid-January to February 2022 or 10% of the group’s winter flight schedule.
Spohr’s feedback had been confirmed to CNN by the Lufthansa press workplace.
— CNN’s Pete Muntean contributed to this report
