Airlines cancel Christmas for thousands of Americans due to crew shortage

Thousands of Americans will be forced to spend Christmas alone after airlines canceled over 600 flights and delayed more than 1,800 on Christmas eve due to staffing shortages caused by surge in Omicron infections.

Short staffing due to the breakthrough infections has led United Airlines to cancel at least 185 flights for Friday, while Atlanta-based Delta said it has canceled 165 and Alaska Airlines said it had canceled 11, and JetBlue 71. More flight cancellations are expected during the day.

Airlines have also cancelled flights scheduled for Christmas Day, usually one of the lighter travel days of the holiday seasons, with Delta Airlines already listing 136 cancellations and United cancelling 108 so far. 

United and Delta said they were working to contact passengers so they would not be stranded at airports and in a statement United made it clear COVID is responsible for the cancellations.

Other major airlines like JetBlue have also cancelled 72 flights and delayed 217, while American Airlines has only cancelled 16 flights but delayed 175.

‘The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation. As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport,’ United said.

The delays have thrown a wrench in many people’s holiday plans, but some people said they were forced to stay home because they are waiting to get their COVID test results back or are too worried about getting home. 

But those willing to travel and faced with delays have been left frustrated and raging at the airlines, with some saying they will now be forced to drive 12 hours to get home in time.

Some said they were left waiting on planes for hours without updates, others said they were left waiting in long lines to check into flights while others said flights were just flat out cancelled with no warning, leaving them stranded for the holidays.

Globally, more than 3,500 flights were cancelled for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to FlightAware, while an additional 2,000 flights were cancelled on Thursday.

The flight tracking website data showed that more than 20 percent of the flights canceled for Christmas Eve involved flights within, into or out of the United States, the Washington Post reported. 

Omicron continues to drive a surge of new COVID cases across the US, with Christmas Eve seeing total infections edge closer to the all-time record with 261,339 new cases in the last 24 hours, up 10 per cent from the day before,  according to figures from Johns Hopkins University published Friday.

And on Friday morning, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Empire State had once again broke its daily COVID infection record, with 44,000 new cases. That was up from 38,600 the day before, and almost 20,000 higher than cases were on Tuesday, with Hochul blaming Omicron for that surge. 

Meanwhile, confirmed Omicron infections rose 45 per cent in a day, from 2,625 to 3,286. Those represent a tiny fraction of the true total, because the US only sequences a very small proportion of positive PCR tests to identify which strain caused a person’s infection. The CDC estimates that at least 73 per cent of all new COVID infections are being caused by Omicron, with that figure as high as 92 per cent in five states including New York and New Jersey. 

Globally, there has been a surge in cases, with the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures revealing there were 1.69million infections per day in the week up to December 19 — last Sunday — rising 55 per cent compared to the previous week. In the UK, London is being battered hardest by the new variant, with one in 20 infected with the virus and ten of the worst hit postcodes in England located within a three square mile stretch.

A weary traveler catches a shut eye at Terminal 4 at JFK Airport a day before Christmas as hundreds of domestic flights are cancelled on Friday

A passenger waits with his pup on line at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Christmas Eve after airlines announced numerous flights were canceled during the spread of the Omicron coronavirus

A traveler makes use of her large luggage and sits on it while she waits a JFK International Airport on Christmas Eve 

Passengers make their way through the airport on Christmas Eve navigating multiple cancellations and delays in order to make it to their destination in time for the holidays 

A passengers takes a break from the commotion and sits with his luggage at JFK International Airport during a chaotic Christmas Eve 

Passengers embrace and take a moment at JFK International Airport on Christmas Eve when thousands of flights were cancelled 

Patient travelers wait on long lines at JFK Airport in New York City on Christmas Eve as airlines like Delta and United continue to cancel flights throughout the day

A flight information display system keeps JFK Airport travelers updated on delays and cancellations on Christmas Eve

Domestic travelers (pictured in JFK Airport) are facing a nightmare this holiday season as airlines on Friday cancelled nearly 500 flights and delayed more than 700

FlightAware data showed that more than 20 percent of the flights canceled for Christmas Eve involved flights within, into or out of the United States (travelers pictured at JFK Airport)

A traveler gets into the holiday spirit in a Santa hat at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on Friday despite mass delays and cancelations across the country

Masked passengers make their way through Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on Friday where there have been 32 cancelled flights on Christmas Eve 

Travelers at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport check their phones for the latest updates as United and Delta airline announce hundreds of cancelled flights on Friday

Florida, Washington DC and Hawaii have seen COVID cases surge more than 500 percent over the past two weeks

When accessing a cancelled flight on United’s website, the following message pops up: ‘Your flight is canceled due to an increase in Covid cases limiting crew availability. We’re sorry for disrupting your holiday plans and for the inconvenience.’ 

The staff shortages may be in part caused by vaccine mandates.

All United Airlines US employees had to be vaccinated by October 25, except for those with medical and religious exemptions and all Delta Air Lines employees must be vaccinated or pay an additional $200 per month for their company-sponsored healthcare plan. Only six out of 13,000 pilots working for United Airlines have been fired as a result of not meeting the mandate deadline, and at least 99% of workers were vaccinated.

But Delta, where 99% of workers are vaccinated, cited potential inclement weather and the impact of the Omicron variant for the cancellations, saying they have ‘exhausted all options and resources — including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying — before canceling around 90 flights for Friday.’  

But travelers were not having it and took to social media to air their frustrations.  

ravelers move through the departures hall at Terminal 4 of John F. Kennedy International Airport on Christmas Eve 

Photos of airports across the country show the chaos at understaffed airports where hundreds of people wait for hours in order to catch their flights

Cancelled flights continue to add up throughout the day as airlines faced staff shortages due to the Omicron surge

Travelers wait in line at the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) in Philadelphia on Thursday as hundreds of flights were cancelled due to short staffing 

Travelers wait to board a flight at the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) in Philadelphia

Passengers at JFK Airport in New York wait for their baggage as cancellations and delays ruin thousands of travel plans  

One Delta traveler said he missed out on two days with his family because of delays.

‘Hey Delta let’s clean it up here for the holidays huh! Changed my initial flight by adding not 1 but 2 stops. So I change flight completely, now it’s an hour delayed and I’ll be missing my connector. Missing 2 days with the fam,’ Will Manny tweeted. 

Another traveler said  a last minute Delta cancellation meant he will be missing holiday celebrations with his family today. 

‘My family celebrates Christmas on the 24th. Was scheduled to fly JFK-LAX today. Delta cancelled the flight with no other same day options,’ Christopher Ramos tweeted. 

Another traveler out of New York said after her experience today she is cutting ties with Delta Airlines. 

‘Delta cancelled flight out of JFK after confirming it when we left our house. Can only get out on flight out of EWR but delta refuses to pay for taxi to get to EWR. Traveling with 2 kids. Merry Christmas. Done with Delta,’ Christina Sweeney tweeted.  

Photos of airports across the country show the chaos at understaffed airports where hundreds of people wait for hours in order to catch their flights for the Christmas holiday.  

At JFK Airport this morning JetBlue passengers were seen waiting on a huge line after the airline was experiencing issues printing bag tickets.

Cleveland Hopkins Airport told travelers to check the status of their flight before they arrived to the airport to avoid wasting a trip: ‘Our message to anyone who has a scheduled flight today is to contact the airline their flight is with to find out the status of their flight before they come to the airport.’

On Friday, Germany-based Lufthansa that it was canceling a dozen long-haul transatlantic flights over the Christmas holiday period because of a ‘massive rise’ in sick leave among pilots.

The cancellations on flights to Houston, Boston and Washington come despite a ‘large buffer’ of additional staff for the period.

The airline says it couldn’t speculate on whether COVID-19 infections or quarantines were responsible because it was not informed about the sort of illness. Passengers were booked on other flights.  

Travelers were told they should brace for long waits at airports and lengthy traffic on the roads as an estimated 109 million people are set to travel between December 23rd and January 2nd this year – a 34 percent increase from the same time period in 2020. 

A dramatic 27.7 million more people than in 2020 will travel 50 miles or more this holiday season, with eight percent less travelers than the same point in 2019.

Of those travelers, 6.4 million will be boarding airplanes, more than twice the 2.3 million that did so during the holiday season during the height of COVID in 2020.  In 2019, 7.33 million holiday travelers traveled by airline, compared to 6.7 million in 2018 and 6.5 million in 2017.

Of this year’s holiday travelers, 6.4 million will be boarding airplanes, more than twice the 2.3 million that did so during the holiday season during the height of COVID in 2020. In 2019, 7.33 million holiday travelers traveled by airline, compared to 6.7 million in 2018 and 6.5 million in 2017

Over the past three days, the Transportation Security Administration has screened more than two million passengers each day at airports nationwide, double the number of screenings carried out this time in 2020.   

At Los Angeles International Airport, up to 3.5 million travelers are expected to pass through between December 17 and January 3rd. There were 45 million travelers during that period in 2019, but this year’s prediction is higher than the 1.85 million passengers seen at that time in 2020.  

After Sunday, peak travel days are expected between December 26 and January 2nd, with more than 200,000 passengers expected each of those days. Friday, according to LAX officials, was the busiest day the airport saw since 2020.  

‘That trend will continue each Sunday for the next three weeks, with busy days in between,’ LAX tweeted.

After Sunday, peak travel days at LAX are expected again on Dec. 26 and Jan. 2, when more than 200,000 passengers are expected during each of the days. 

On Tuesday, Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian asked the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to shrink quarantine guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals who experience breakthrough COVID-19 infections, citing the impact on the carrier’s workforce. 

Bastian asked that the isolation period be cut to five days from the current 10.

That request was echoed both by Airlines for America, a trade group representing major cargo and passenger carriers, which wrote to the CDC on Thursday, and by JetBlue on Wednesday.

The CDC released updated quarantine guidance for healthcare workers on Thursday, cutting the isolation time to seven days for workers who test positive for COVID-19 but are asymptomatic, providing they test negative. 

It has been expected to be a rebound season for holiday travel after the pandemic shut down most of it in 2020. 

As the virus rages at home, President Biden lifted the travel ban on several African countries.

Now all non-U.S. citizens who had recently been in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi may travel to the U.S. 

The CDC recommend the change because of promising stats out of Africa. 

Data from  from South Africa, where the strain was first reported, looks promising. 

There was a huge and sudden drop in cases, suggesting Omicron may have quickly run its course. But panic over the new strain continues to prevail across much of the world, with Italy and Spain now ordering people to wear masks outdoors. 

Imperial College London on Wednesday found that Omicron is 40 per cent less likely to lead to serious illness than the Delta variant. 

Another study by the University of Edinburgh suggested that the new variant could slash hospitalizations by as much as 65 percent, with a third South African study indicating the potential 80 per cent drop in hospitalizations. 

Both British studies underlined, however, the importance of vaccines with the Imperial study stating the risk of hospitalization for an unvaccinated person was just 10 percent lower for Omicron than with Delta.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, just 72.8 percent of all eligible Americans had received their first COVID dose by Wednesday, and 61.7 percent are fully vaccinated.

And of those who are eligible for a booster shot, just 30 percent have received one.

Daily Covid deaths in the US spike 50% to 3,354 as Omicron cases jump 45% and push COVID infections to near record of 261,339

Omicron continues to drive a surge of new COVID cases across the US, with Christmas Eve seeing total infections edge closer to the all-time record.

Figures from Johns Hopkins University published Friday show there were 261,339 new cases in the last 24 hours, up 10 per cent from 238,378 the day before.

The number of deaths caused by the virus have also skyrocketed to 3,354, a 52 per cent increase from 2,204 fatalities on Thursday. 

And on Friday morning, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Empire State had once again broke its daily COVID infection record, with 44,000 new cases. That was up from 38,600 the day before, and almost 20,000 higher than cases were on Tuesday, with Hochul blaming Omicron for that surge. 

Meanwhile, confirmed Omicron infections rose 45 per cent in a day, from 2,625 to 3,286. Those represent a tiny fraction of the true total, because the US only sequences a very small proportion of positive PCR tests to identify which strain caused a person’s infection. 

The CDC estimates that at least 73 per cent of all new COVID infections are being caused by Omicron, with that figure as high as 92 per cent in five states including New York and New Jersey.  

Cases of COVID are spiking ahead of the Christmas holiday even in the nation’s sunniest states. Hawaii saw a 805 per cent uptick in new cases and Florida reported a 711% increase in infections in a fortnight.

In the nation’s capital new infections rose 614 per cent. 

The number of deaths caused by the virus have also skyrocketed to 3,354, a 34 per cent increase from Thursday. 

Reports from the UK Health Security Agency on Thursday show that Omicron may be  70 per cent less fatal than the Delta variant or previous strains, but new hospitalizations are still flooding into the nation’s hospitals. There were 69,903 new patients admitted with the virus on Thursday, a 10 per cent increase from the previous day, according to The New York Times. 

New York continues to have the highest number of new Omicron cases with 442 reported on Thursday, followed by Texas with 394 cases and California, with 358 new cases. 

The United Kingdom smashed its single day diagnosis rate again on Thursday, with 119,789 new infections, and hospitalizations up by 18 per cent in a week. It is a world-leader in sequencing, and has so-far identified close to 75,000 Omicron infections for a population almost five times smaller than the US. 

 The United States logged a seven-day average coronavirus case count of 168,981 on Wednesday, surpassing a summer peak of over 165,000 infections, according to the Washington Post. While worrying, the figure still falls well short of the 249,000 average hit in January 2020. 

That marks the second largest surge in cases since the pandemic began nearly two years ago as the highly contagious Omicron variant has been detected in all 50 states, as well Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.   

Officials now warn that the virus could infect 140 million people between January and March – 60 percent of all Americans, although 90 per cent of those who catch COVID are predicted to have no symptoms. Three studies published in the last day have confirmed the strain is milder than Delta, and may result in up to 80 per cent fewer hospitalizations.

There is, however, some good news on the horizon. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved a second anti-viral pill, this time from Merck, called molnupiravir. 

The agency touted the new drug ‘for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults with positive results…and who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death.’

The pill could be 30% effective in treating the infection for high-risk patients, less than previously expected because of the new strain, according to Merck executive Dr. Eliav Barr.

‘The Omicron variant is primarily different from the other types of Covid at the spike protein,’ Barr told CNN. ‘Our drug works in completely different part of the virus. So we’re very optimistic that the drug will continue to be effective against Omicron, and we’re studying that right now.’

 There have been other caveats to the medication. There have been warnings about its effect on pregnant women and their fetuses, which is still unknown.

Some fear that molnupiravir, which causes the virus to mutate and attack itself, could create another strain that proves toxic to people.

‘The fact is that most mutations are probably lethal to the organism, but a couple of them are going to end up being beneficial for the organism, and we’ve seen that with the successive different variants that have come out,’ Defense Health Agency director Dr. Peter Weina told the Daily Caller.