As COVID spikes, United, Delta cancel dozens of flights

By David Shepardson | Reuters

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines connected Thursday said they had each canceled dozens of Christmas Eve flights, arsenic the spreading COVID-19 Omicron variant takes a toll connected its formation crews and different workers.

Chicago-based United canceled 120 flights for Friday, portion Atlanta-based Delta said it has canceled astir 90. Both said they were moving to interaction passengers truthful they would not beryllium stranded astatine airports.

“The nationwide spike successful Omicron cases this week has had a nonstop interaction connected our formation crews and the radical who tally our operation. As a result, we’ve unluckily had to cancel immoderate flights and are notifying impacted customers successful beforehand of them coming to the airport,” United said.

Delta said it has “exhausted each options and resources — including rerouting and substitutions of craft and crews to screen scheduled flying — earlier canceling astir 90 flights for Friday.”

Delta cited imaginable inclement upwind and the interaction of the Omicron variant for the cancellations.

On Tuesday, Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian asked the caput of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to shrink quarantine guidelines for afloat vaccinated individuals who acquisition breakthrough COVID-19 infections, citing the interaction connected the carrier’s workforce. Bastian asked that the isolation play beryllium chopped to 5 days from the existent 10.

That petition was echoed some by Airlines for America, a commercialized radical representing large cargo and rider carriers, which wrote to the CDC connected Thursday, and by JetBlue connected Wednesday.

The CDC released updated quarantine guidance for healthcare workers connected Thursday, cutting the isolation clip to 7 days for workers who trial affirmative for COVID-19 but are asymptomatic, providing they trial negative.