Airlines Cancel Thousands of Flights as Omicron Gets Worse

On Thursday, December 23rd, 2021, Delta and United announced that some 200 flights would be canceled over the next few days. Their reasoning? Omicron. This left travelers scrambling to find flights to their destinations before Christmas.

The total number of canceled flights has jumped from around 200 flights to over 12,000 in under a week. On top of canceled flights, there have been over 45,000 delays. This comes after cancelations affected crew rotations.

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Airlines have explained that the reasons for delays and cancelations are from the new Covid-19 Variant "Omicron" and a mix of weather conditions. For example, Seattle's record-breaking winter storm last week, or unprecedented wildfires in Colorado.

Photo: WBRC 6

JetBlue continues to be the airline with the most cancelations, sitting at 1,280 canceled flights. Airlines have stated they hope to have flights back to normal by February 2022, although the CDC estimates the Omicron Variant will be at its peak during that time.