Airlines in New York have canceled thousands of flights on Christmas Eve, including hundreds of US domestic flights, as staff and crew call out sick during the Omicron surge.
As crowds hit the airports for the holidays, several major U.S. airlines were forced to cancel more than 300 Christmas Eve flights due to the fast-spreading omicron variant of COVID-19, stranding people going home for the holidays.
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United Airlines cancelled 169 flights for Christmas Eve.
Airlines have canceled over 2,000 flights, 467 of which are related to the United States.
A statement from a Delta spokesperson shared online:
“Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources -- including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying -- before canceling around 90 flights for Friday. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans. Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight.”
The spokesperson said the flight cancelations were because of a number of issues, including “potential inclement weather in some areas and the impact of the Omicron variant.”
Christmas Eve is one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Lauren Mangus flew into Jacksonville from Scotland to visit family.
“Three flights, three time zones today. So I’m happy to be home,” she said.
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Operational problems at airlines are coming as millions are still flying in spite of rising coronavirus cases. TTSA screened over two million people at airports across the country on Thursday, the highest figure since the uptick in holiday travel started a week ago.
On Thursday, United Airlines said it had to "cancel some flights" because of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
"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. "As a result, we've unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport."
"We're sorry for the disruption and are working hard to rebook as many people as possible and get them on their way for the holidays," the airline added.
And it's not just United that's feeling the impact of the variant on crews.
Delta Air Lines has cancelled 124 flights for Christmas Eve. The airline says the "flight cancellations are due to a combination of issues, including but not limited to, potential inclement weather in some areas and the impact of the omicron variant."
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"Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources -- including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying -- before canceling around 90 flights for Friday," Delta said in a statement to ABC News. "We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans. Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight."
Alaska Airlines has resorted to offering extra pay to their healthy employees who can work added shifts into this upcoming Christmas weekend.
The airline says they have had to cancel 10 Christmas Eve flights due to some of their employees quarantining after reporting that they may have been exposed to COVID-19.
Airlines for America (A4A), the group that lobbies on behalf of all major U.S. airlines, is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to shorten the quarantine time for fully vaccinated individuals, saying the omicron surge may create "significant" disruptions.
In Europe, Italy has reintroduced mandatory masks outdoors, and Greece has ordered people to wear face masks both indoors and outdoors. In South America, Ecuador made vaccines compulsory for nearly all to combat coronavirus infections surging globally just before the Christmas holidays.
France’s President Macron to convene COVID-19 meeting
French President Emmanuel Macron will convene a meeting of public health officials on Monday to address the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, an Elysee presidential official has told the Reuters new service.
France is confronting a record number of new infections of COVID-19. The council includes Macron and ministers of Health, Defence, Economy and Labor with leaders of major public health institutions.
Christmas shopping in London falls 30 percent versus last week
Shopper numbers in central London on Christmas Eve were 30 percent lower than the previous Friday as fears of the Omicron variant kept many people from high streets, according to data from Springboard.
City centers outside London saw a 10 percent drop in shoppers in the hours up to midday versus a week earlier, the data showed. Footfall across all destinations was 21 percent lower than on Christmas Eve 2019, Springboard said.
United States to lift travel ban on 8 southern African countries
The Biden administration will lift travel restrictions to eight southern African countries on New Year’s Eve, December 31, the White House announced.
The restrictions, imposed when the Omicron outbreak was discovered last month, were meant to buy time for the US to prepare for its spread, President Joe Biden had said.
The November 29 travel ban barred most non-US citizens who recently have been in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi from entering the United States.
Global airline carriers scrap more than 2,000 flights
Global airline carriers have canceled more than 2,000 flights so far on Friday, the FlightAware website said, in an indication of how COVID-19 is affecting holiday travel.
The website showed that as of 8:20 am Eastern Time (13:20 GMT), 2,028 flights around the world had been scrapped.
FlightAware said there had been 448 cancellations within, into, or out of the United States so far on Friday.
Lufthansa, United, Delta cancel flights over Christmas
At least three major airlines said they have cancelled dozens of flights because illnesses largely tied to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 have taken a toll on flight crew numbers during the busy holiday travel season.
Germany-based Lufthansa said 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.
US-based Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said they had to cancel dozens of Christmas Eve flights because of staff shortages tied to Omicron. United cancelled 169 flights, and Delta called off 127, according to FlightAware.
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