United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have canceled dozens of flights on Friday due to staffing shortages linked to COVID. With Omicron rapidly spreading, flights crews and other staffers have been affected, leading to cancellations. The shortages mean thousands of passengers will be unable to fly home ahead of the holidays, in what is usually the busiest time of the year.
Canceled
United has canceled 120 flights on the 24th of December, while Delta has axed 90 services on the eve of Christmas. These last-minute cancelations will leave thousands of passengers stranded just before Christmas, with both airlines trying hard to inform passengers before they reach the airport.
According to Reuters, both carriers cited the Omicron variant as the reason behind these cancelations, with cases spiking across the US as a result. This has meant large numbers of crew and staffers going into quarantine, leaving United and Delta in a crunch.
In a statement, Delta said that it had,
“Exhausted all options and resources — including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying — before canceling around 90 flights for Friday.”
United echoed the same, saying,
“The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation. As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport.”
Cut the time
With Omicron leaving thousands in self-isolation every day, airlines have joined calls to cut self-isolation time for fully vaccinated individuals. CDC guidance currently allows healthcare workers to quarantine for only seven days if asymptomatic and test negative again. However, the airline industry wants to go even further.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian has called for the isolation time to be cut to five days for fully vaccinated individuals. The airline warned that lengthy isolations would be an operational disaster, which is starting to show with Friday’s cancelations.
While seven days is quickly becoming the norm for vaccinated people, it’s unclear if the CDC is close to recommending a five-day isolation. However, if too many staffers contract COVID, it could lead to thousands of canceled flights and huge issues across the airlines.
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Wave incoming
Despite Christmas travel going strong, with over 2 million passengers every day for the last week (barring one), airlines still expect an impact from the Omicron variant in early 2022. As cases continue to rise, carriers will hope that this is a sharp and short wave rather than one that eats into Spring traffic.
For now, airlines will be hoping to avoid a significant disruption due to isolating crews and frontline staff. While a seven-day quarantine is likely, five days might take a while longer to come into effect.
What do you think about United and Delta’s Christmas troubles? Let us know in the comments.
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