Wave of canceled flights from omicron closes out 2021

More canceled flights frustrated aerial travelers connected the last time of 2021 and appeared each but definite to inconvenience hundreds of thousands much implicit the New Year's vacation weekend.

Airlines blamed galore of the cancellations connected unit shortages related to the spike successful COVID-19 infections, with wintry upwind successful parts of the United States compounding the problem.

By midday Friday connected the East Coast, airlines had scrubbed much than 1,300 U.S. flights and 2,700 worldwide, according to tracking work FlightAware. That compared with astir 1,400 U.S. cancellations for each of Thursday.

That pushed the full U.S. cancellations since Christmas Eve supra 9,000.

The disruptions travel conscionable arsenic question numbers ascent higher going into the New Year’s vacation weekend. Since Dec. 16, much than 2 cardinal travelers a time connected mean person passed done U.S. airdrome information checkpoints, an summation of astir 100,000 a time since November.

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Canceled flights began rising soon earlier Christmas, astir notably for United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways.

On Friday, United canceled much than 200 flights, oregon 11% of its docket — and that doesn't see cancellations connected the United Express determination affiliate. CommutAir, which operates galore United Express flights, scrubbed one-third of its docket by midday, according to FlightAware figures.

JetBlue canceled much than 140 flights, oregon 14% of its schedule, and Delta grounded much than 100, oregon 5% of its flights by midday Friday.

Other forms of proscription are besides being hammered by the surge successful microorganism cases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that it is monitoring much than 90 cruise ships due to the fact that of COVID-19 outbreaks. The wellness bureau warned radical not to spell connected cruises, adjacent if they are afloat vaccinated against the virus.

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The remnants of the delta variant and the emergence of the caller omicron variant pushed the seven-day rolling mean of caller regular COVID-19 cases successful the U.S. supra 350,000, astir triple the complaint of conscionable 2 weeks ago, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

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