Flying during the holiday time of year is already stressful enough , but therampant spreadof the Omicron variant is quickly making people ’s traveling program even more hellish . More than 2,500 flight have been delete on Tuesday alone , according to the airline business tracking websiteFlightAware , with over 5,500 more delayed across the board . It ’s likely that we ’ll see even more delays and cancelations before the twenty-four hours ’s ending .
On Monday , for example , airports across the world reported a whopping 16,562 delay total , with confining to one-half ( 8,053 ) involving U.S. flight . Cancellations clocked in at 3,260 across the earth , with close to one-half ( 1,474 ) involve U.S. flight . These figures keep an eye on the roughly 6,000 flightsreportedly canceledbetween Christmas Eve , Christmas Day , and the day after Christmas .
No matter how you slice it , these cancelations are add up at the least opportune time for travelers . Air locomotion spike heel every twelvemonth during the vacation travel season between mid - December to early January , withtens of millions of passengersbooking flight across the U.S. during this span . For context , the TSAreportedprocessing about 2 million rider per day during this week in 2019 . While those numbers dipped in 2020 , the TSA has report similar image again this year .
Photo: Christof Stache (Getty Images)
Omicron cases are a major constituent drive this year ’s rash of cancellation . United Airlinestold pilotsover the weekend that the ship’s company was facing a rising case numeration among the caller ’s airplane pilot , with a “ high turn of archetype on the grisly list , ” and presently stuck in quarantine . Delta Airlines , JetBlue , and American Airlines havealso reporteda fresh wave of sick calls from staffers , leaving the companies with no selection but to cancel hundreds of flights each .
In a Sunday subject matter to pilotsobtained by CNBC , Bryan Quigley , United ’s senior vice president of flight operations , wrote that over the course of the pandemic , United was capable to “ absorb ” the reduced staffing “ because we had a significantly decoct agenda . ”
“ Now as we approach 2019 flight levels , we must do all we can to assure we are protected so that we can flee the schedule , ” he went on .
The CEOs of some major airlines , include Delta , had previouslypushed backagainst the CDC ’s recommended 10 - day quarantine menstruum for those exposed to COVID-19 . This week , the CDCbudged , swapping the late guidelines forpotentially dangerous ) new ones that say individuals only require to quarantine for five days , not 10 , if they ’re asymptomatic .
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