A flurry of flight cancellations continued on Christmas Day, with U.S. airlines scrapping nearly 1,000 flights as the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus caused crew members to call out sick.
The cancellations affected more than 10 percent of the flights scheduled by Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and JetBlue. American Airlines had canceled less than 5 percent of flights, according to FlightAware, which provides aviation data.
By midday on Saturday the number of cancellations had already exceeded the total cancellations on Christmas Eve, a setback for travelers and airlines hoping this holiday season would be a return to relative normal. Globally, more than 2,500 flights scheduled for Christmas Day were canceled.
“A number of Covid-related sick calls led us to make the difficult decision to precancel some flights scheduled for today,” said Derek Walls, a spokesman for American Airlines, which had about 90 cancellations on Saturday. “We proactively notified affected customers yesterday, and are working hard to rebook them quickly.”