6,300 flights cancelled as Omicron hits Christmas weekend travel | Al Jazeera

More than 6,000 flights have been cancelled worldwide over the long Christmas weekend and thousands more were delayed, according to a tracking website, 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 the northwestern US cities of Seattle and Portland.

According to Flightaware.com, nearly 2,800 flights were scrubbed around the globe on Saturday, including more than 970 originating from or headed to US airports, with more than 8,000 delays as of 01:30 GMT.

On Friday, there were approximately 2,400 cancellations and 11,000 delays, while Sunday cancellations have already surpassed 1,100.

Pilots, flight attendants and other employees have been calling in sick or having to quarantine after exposure to COVID-19, forcing 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.