x

Travel

Flight Cancellations Continue Due to Bad Weather, Sick Crews

December 27, 2021

NEW YORK — Flight cancellations that disrupted holiday travel stretched into Monday, with major US airlines each canceling dozens of flights.

Staffers calling out sick because of COVID-19, particularly since the emergence of the omnicron variant, have left airlines short in recent days. According to FlightAware, which tracks flight cancellations, airlines have canceled roughly 4,000 flights to, from or inside the U.S. since Friday.

Delta, United, JetBlue and American have all said that the coronavirus was causing staffing problems, and European and Australian airlines also canceled holiday-season flights because staff were infected, but weather and other factors played a role as well.

Winter weather in the Pacific Northwest led to nearly 250 flight cancellations to or from Seattle on Sunday, said Alaska Airlines, and the airline expects more than 100 flight cancellations Monday. But it says that crew calling out sick because of COVID-19 is no longer a factor.

United said it canceled 115 flights Monday, out of more than 4,000 scheduled, due to crews out with COVID-19.

Flight delays and cancellations tied to staffing shortages have been a consistent problem this year. Airlines encouraged workers to quit in 2020 when air travel collapsed, and were caught short-staffed this year as air travel rebounded faster than almost anyone had expected.

Airlines have called on the Biden administration to shorten the guidelines for the isolation period for vaccinated workers who get COVID-19, in order to ease staffing shortages. The union for flight attendants has pushed back against that, saying the isolation period should remain 10 days.

 

RELATED

ATHENS - Athens International Airport once again secures top honors in Europe for its marketing prowess and market development initiatives, as recognized by airline voters in the over 20 million passengers category at the Routes Europe 2024 conference held in Aarhus, Denmark.

Top Stories

Columnists

A pregnant woman was driving in the HOV lane near Dallas.

General News

NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.

Video

A Palestinian Baby in Gaza is Born an Orphan in an Urgent Cesarean Section after an Israeli Strike

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Sabreen Jouda came into the world seconds after her mother left it.

ATHENS - S&P credit rating agency upgraded Greece’s outlook to 'positive' from 'stable' on Friday, April 19, 2024 while maintaining the investment-grade rating of BBB-.

ATHENS - The Ministry of National Economy and Finance is pressing ahead with a legislative regulation, which it will submit to Parliament within the week or at the latest the following day, to slash the fees for POS transactions.

ATHENS - Throughout 2023, Intrakat Group executed its strategic plan with remarkable success, witnessing robust performance across all business segments.

Enter your email address to subscribe

Provide your email address to subscribe. For e.g. [email protected]

You may unsubscribe at any time using the link in our newsletter.