At least 6,000 flights have been canceled worldwide over the long Christmas weekend and thousands more were delayed.
This was disclosed by a tracking website on Sunday, as the highly infectious Omicron variant brings holiday hurt to millions.
Compounding the travel chaos in the United States, severe weather in the country’s west is due to wreak havoc on roadways and other routes there although it may well bring a white Christmas weekend to northwest cities Seattle and Portland.
According to Flightaware.com, more than 2,800 flights were scrubbed around the globe on Saturday, including more than 990 originating from or headed to US airports, with over 8,500 delays as of 0500 GMT.
On Friday, there were around 2,400 cancellations and 11,000 delays, while Sunday cancellations were at nearly 1,500 with more than 1,400 delays also reported.
Pilots, flight attendants and other employees have been calling in sick or having to quarantine after exposure to COVID.
This has forced Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines and many other short-staffed carriers to cancel flights during one of the year’s peak travel periods.
