US airport chaos continues as more than 2,600 flights cancelled | Al Jazeera

Air travel continues to be severely disrupted in the United States, with bad weather in parts of the country adding to the impact of a surge in COVID-19 infections fuelled by the Omicron variant.

The US had 2,604 cancelled flights on Saturday, more than half of the 4,529 cancelled worldwide, shortly after 4:30pm (21:30 GMT), according to tracking website FlightAware.

Among international carriers, China Eastern scrubbed more than 500 flights, or about one-fourth of its total, and Air China cancelled more than 200 flights, one-fifth of its schedule, according to FlightAware.

The US cancellations represent the highest single-day toll since just before Christmas when airlines began announcing staffing shortages as a result of increasing COVID infections among crews.

The worst-affected US airline was Southwest, which had to cancel 450 flights nationwide or 13 percent of its flight schedule, according to the site.

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines scrubbed more than 200 flights each, and United Airlines cancelled more than 150.