Airlines americans hundreds of flights were suspended for the third day in a row on Sunday as rising COVID-19 infections from the omicron variant they grounded crews and forced tens of thousands of travelers to change their Christmas weekend plans.
Commercial airlines canceled 656 flights in, to or out of the United States on Sunday, down slightly from nearly 1,000 on Christmas Day and nearly 700 on Dec. 24, according to a tally on flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. .
More cancellations and more than 920 flights were likely to be delayed.
The Christmas holidays are often a key time for air travel, but the rapid spread of the omicron variant has led to a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights with pilots and crew who they must be in quarantine.
Delta Air Lines Inc expected more than 300 of its flights to be canceled on Sunday.
Globally, FlightAware data showed that nearly 2,150 flights were canceled on Sunday and another 5,798 were delayed, according to information released at 9.40am EST (1440 GMT).
Ómicron was first detected in November and now accounts for nearly three-quarters of cases in the United States and up to 90% in some areas, such as the East Coast. The average number of new coronavirus cases in the United States rose 45% to 179,000 a day over the past week, according to a Reuters tally.
While recent research suggests that omicron produces milder illness and a lower rate of hospitalizations than previous variants of COVID-19, health officials have kept a cautious note on the outlook.
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