Delta and United among airlines axing 1,800 US flights over Xmas due to Omicron staff shortage leaving families stranded
DELTA, United, and other US airlines have canceled more than 1,800 flights over Christmas weekend after the surge in the Omicron variant of Covid led to staff shortages.
Globally, more than 5,800 flights have been canceled between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and December 26, according to the latest figures from Flight Aware.
As of 1.30pm on Christmas Day, Flight Aware shows that 921 flights were canceled within, into, or out of the US on December 25.
It came after 690 on Christmas Eve with at least another 221 expected on December 26.
There were 2,380 cancelations worldwide on Christmas Eve and 2,608 so far on Christmas Day.
Another 873 are expected tomorrow.
Many families hoping to make it home for Christmas were left stranded with several airlines citing staffing shortages due to the high level of Omicron cases in recent days.
United, Delta, and Alaska were forced to cancel hundreds of flights after the omicron variant infected employees and crew members.
Extreme weather in some parts of the country also caused further complications.
AAA's holiday travel forecast, released last week, predicted a total of 6.4million people would travel by air between December 23 and January 2.
This is a 184 percent increase over the same period in 2020.
"[Asked] the @united airlines flight attendant for advice since the delay was gonna make me miss my connection and he said 'What do you want me to do about that? Good luck' #MerryChristmas," .
A total of 109.5million people are expected to travel over the holidays, according to AAA predictions, despite the growing concern of the new Covid variant.
About 100.1million people are expected to travel by car, while about 2.9million are expected to use other methods like trains or buses.
That's up 33.9 percent over 2020, but still 8.2 percent below pre-pandemic levels of 119.3million travelers in 2019.
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The surge in travel comes as the US is recording nearly 187,000 new daily cases, a 55 percent increase over the last two weeks.
Here's how to get a refund if your holiday flight was canceled.
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