Global airline carriers have cancelled thousands of flights on Christmas Eve, including hundreds of US domestic flights, as staff and crew call out sick during the surge of a new coronavirus variant, Omicron.
The FlightAware website said airline carriers have cancelled more than 2,000 flights so far on Friday, in an indication of how Omicron is affecting holiday travel, report Reuters and CNN Business.
The website showed that as of 8:20 am Eastern Time (1320 GMT), 2,028 flights around the world had been scrapped. It said there had been 448 cancellations within, into, or out of the United States so far on Friday.
United Airlines and Delta Air Lines on Thursday said they had each cancelled dozens of Christmas Eve flights, as the spreading coronavirus Omicron variant took a toll on its flight crews and other workers.
China Eastern has cancelled 474 flights, or 22 per cent of its operation, according to FlightAware. Similarly, Air China cancelled about 190 flights or 15 per cent of its schedule.
Air India, Shenzhen Airlines, Lion Air and Wings Air all cancelled dozens of flights as well.