Airlines around the world have canceled more than 4,500 flights over the Christmas weekend amid a growing wave of coronavirus infections caused by the Omicron strain, creating great uncertainty and inconvenience for holidaymakers, Reuters reports.
Airlines worldwide canceled at least 2,401 flights on Friday night, according to current estimates by the flight tracking website FlightAware.com. Nearly 10,000 more flights were delayed.
The website showed that 1,779 flights for Christmas were canceled worldwide, along with another 402, which were rescheduled for Sunday.
Commercial air traffic in the United States and to or from the country accounts for more than a quarter of all canceled flights over the weekend, according to FlightAware.
Among the first U.S. carriers to report a wave of canceled holidays over the weekend were United Airlines and Delta Airlines, which canceled nearly 280 flights together on Friday alone, citing staff shortages amid rising coronavirus infections. .
The average number of new coronavirus cases in the United States has risen 45 percent to 179,000 a day in the past week, according to Reuters.
In the UK, many industries and transport networks are struggling with staff shortages as sick workers isolate themselves.
One in 20 Londoners tested positive for coronavirus last week, a figure that could rise to one in 10 by early next week, according to data released Thursday by the Office for National Statistics.
France set a new record of more than 94,000 newly infected people on Friday, while hospitalizations from the virus reached a seven-month high, prompting the government to convene a special meeting on Monday to consider new restrictions.
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