US airlines again cancelled over 1,000 flights ahead of New Year, with bad weather and Omicron battering airlines’ holiday flight schedules.
United Airlines scrapped 190 flights, which is about 7% of its schedule, while JetBlue Airways cancelled 175 flights, representing 17% of its daily schedule.
Several thousand flights have been cancelled since the beginning of the Christmas holiday weekend.
Airlines are struggling with staff contracting Omicron or being forced to isolate.
"Like many businesses, we have seen a surge in the number of sick calls from Omicron. We expect the number of Covid cases in the North-east – where most of our crew members are based – to continue to surge for the next week or two", JetBlue said.
The airline said it is proactively cutting its schedule through mid-January due to the pressure on staffing levels.
JetBlue will scrap about 1,280 flights through January 13.
Allegiant said severe weather in the west is impacting schedules as well as staffing pressures.
Alaska Airlines’ Seattle hub has been hard hit by heavy snow and the airline cut 20% of flights for today.
More than 500 flights across the US on multiple carriers were already cancelled for New Year’s Eve.
Yesterday the Transportation Security Administration said it screened 2.02 million people at airports around the US
