Over 4500 flights have been cancelled around the world and thousands more delayed due to the outbreak of the highly infectious Omicron variant of coronavirus, reports Al Jazeera.
At least 2,000 flights were cancelled worldwide on Christmas Day.
According to the tracking website flightaware.com, 616 flights originating from or headed to the United States (US) airports were cancelled and more than 8,000 were delayed.
Pilots, flights attendants and other staff have been calling in sick or having to quarantine after exposure to Covid, forcing international airlines (Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines) to cancel flights during one of the years peak travel periods.
United Airlines who cancelled 185 flights on Christmas eve, in a statement, said, “The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation.”
Earlier this week, it was reported that the rapidly spreading Omicron variant is the dominant Covid strain in the US, representing 73 per cent of sequenced cases.
