Wave of flight cancellations for the fifth day, with 2,450 worldwide

Cancellations of flights around the world, caused mainly by the expansion of the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, remain for the fifth consecutive day, adding at 15.30 GMT on Tuesday a total of 2,450 worldwide.

According to the FlightAware.com portal, which monitors the state of air traffic in real time, a third of the cancellations (809) had as their origin or destination US airports, in which the meteorological reasons of blizzards and storms have also been added. of snow.

In any case, the most affected airports are the Asian ones. In origin, those that have registered the most cancellations are those of Jakarta, Beijing and Shanghai, in this order; in destination, Beijing, Jakarta and Seattle.

In the registry by airlines, the most affected have been China Eastern and Air China (426 and 196 cancellations, respectively).

Yesterday, Monday, there were a total of 3,260 cancellations worldwide, almost half of them (1,474) in the United States, a trend that had started last Friday and that was growing during the weekend.

The general policy of the airlines is to require proof of vaccination plus a PCR test before boarding an international flight, but the main epidemiologist of the US Government, the now famous Dr. Anthony Fauci, suggested yesterday that these requirements also be extended to internal flights in the United States, where only PCR testing is required.

Currently, the United States has a vaccination rate of 61%, which is low compared to other countries such as Portugal (88%), Chile (87%) and Spain (90%), so this measure, if imposed, can be unpopular.

The United States, which opened its borders to international tourism on November 8 after a ban on “non-essential travel” that lasted a year and a half, does not seem inclined to establish new air restrictions or to close vital sectors for the economy such as the leisure, and for example the New York authorities have refused to cancel the end of the year festivities.

The policy in China is very different, a country that is still closed to tourism and the vast majority of travelers from abroad: the Chinese aviation authorities currently limit international flights to and from China to 2.2% of those that existed before the pandemic.

All passengers, regardless of their origin or nationality, must undergo a strict quarantine of a minimum of 14 days in specialized hotels, where the stay is paid for by the traveler.

The Government has made its strategy and its management of the pandemic one of its main prides and its media uses it as an example against that of the United States, where COVID-19 has already left more than 800,000 dead.