Airlines’ US holiday flight cuts near 1,900 on crew shortages

Bloomberg

Airlines’ US flight cancellations approached 1,900 for the Christmas weekend, disrupting travel on one of the busiest periods of the year as the Omicron-fueled wave of Covid cases triggered air-crew shortages.
Saturday’s pullbacks erased at least 12% of the schedule at Delta Air Lines Inc, United Airlines Holdings Inc and JetBlue Airways Corp, according to data tracker FlightAware.com. The US cuts on Christmas Day alone totalled more than 900.
Airlines’ tie-ups added to evidence of economic disruptions from the Omicron variant, whose fast spread is causing havoc even though initial indications suggest that it causes less-severe illness than other Covid strains. Health-care systems are being squeezed by a lack of staff, and a US Navy warship is stuck at Guantanamo Bay after a Covid outbreak on board.
“Someone should’ve sounded an alarm when they realized people can get Omicron after being vaccinated,” said Henry Harteveldt, president of travel consulting firm Atmosphere Research Group. “It doesn’t seem like they planned well enough.”
The disruptions may extend into the New Year’s holiday weekend, he said. Still, US air travel could face less stress if the federal government shortens the required quarantine for industry workers who test positive with the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control reduced isolation time for vaccinated health-care workers who contract the virus. Airlines for America, the trade association representing North American carriers, wrote to the CDC asking for the 10-day quarantine period for fully vaccinated individuals to be cut to “no more than five days.”
Flight cancellations are a “concern at a time when people are travelling to spend time with family and friends for the holidays,” Harteveldt said. “No airline wants to be viewed as the Grinch who stole Christmas.”
The global tally of dropped flights was almost 6,000 trips for Friday through Sunday, according to FlightAware. China Eastern had the most cancellations, and the most-affected airport was in the Chinese city of Xi’an, where the Beijing government cracked down under its Covid Zero policy after an outbreak.
Delta’s 566 cancellations for the holiday weekend led the US industry, FlightAware data showed at 4:20 p.m New York time, closely followed by United, with 507 flights erased from its holiday itineraries. JetBlue had at least 205 flights cancelled for the weekend, according to FlightAware.
“Like many businesses and organizations, we have seen an increasing number of sick calls from Omicron,” JetBlue spokesperson Derek Dombrowski said in an emailed statement. “Despite our best efforts, we’ve had to cancel a number of flights, and additional flight cancellations and other delays remain a possibility as we see more Omicron community spread.”
The holidays are among the year’s peak travel periods. The Transportation Security Administration estimated that December 22 and 23 would be the busiest pre-Christmas travel dates nationally and locally, with January 2 and 3 the most crowded for post-holiday travel.