Flights and trains canceled: transport already affected by the 5th wave of Covid

The possible “disorganization of society” feared by many specialists in the face of the progression of the Omicron variant, is it already at work? Affected by the 5th wave of Covid-19, the SNCF announced, Thursday, December 23, having to cancel regional trains like the first German airline, Lufthansa, which had to cancel several intercontinental flights in the run-up to Christmas , too many pilots having fallen ill.

Disruptions due to staff shortages are also affecting Transilien and RER traffic this Thursday and until Christmas weekend.

“Like any employer, we are confronted at the scale of the SNCF group (SNCF Voyageurs, SNCF Réseau, SNCF Gares & Connexion) with the effects of this 5th Covid wave, neither more nor less than the rest of society”, explained a spokesperson for the railway company on Thursday to AFP. “The evolution of the health situation (increase in Covid cases and contact cases) may lead to local adaptations of some of our transport plans”, either because the railway workers are unavailable, or because of“less frequentation by travelers, for example due to teleworking”, he added.

“The adaptations of the transport plans that we may encounter due to the Covid only relate to regional trains”, specified the spokesperson, noting that the phenomenon was for the moment “local and marginal”.

In Occitania in particular, the SNCF canceled all trains until January on the Perpignan-Villefranche (Pyrénées-Orientales), Carcassonne-Quillan (Aude) and Nîmes-Le Grau du Roi (Gard) lines. Trains are canceled on other lines such as between Mende and Marjevols (Lozère), Lyon and Grenoble, Bordeaux and Sarlat (Dordogne), Nancy and Longwy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Évreux and Mantes (Yvelines) or on internal links to Normandy.

This Thursday, RER traffic was also affected due to reduced staff. On the line, “plan 2 out of 3 trains on average”, detailed the Citymapper transport app, with traffic set to stay in check on Friday. “Reason: difficulties linked to a lack of personnel due to the health crisis”, according to SNCF. On line D, between Corbeil-Essonnes and Melun, one in two trains is announced during rush hour this Thursday, the traffic being, again, supposed to remain disrupted over Christmas weekend.

The H, J, L, P, R lines of the transilien also do not work normally these days.

“Transatlantic routes to North America to Boston, Houston and Washington are mostly affected from December 23-26 due to increased disease rate.” among the pilots, also indicated the German company Lufthansa, which wants to offer alternatives to the passengers concerned. “We have strong reservations” of flight crew, but “they are no longer sufficient with an extremely high disease rate”, said a spokesperson for the company.

The link of disease cases with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus falls under “speculative”, because Lufthansa is not informed of the type of illness contracted by its pilots, added this source. The online portal aero.de first reported the lack of available pilots from the German company, who usually fly on A330 and A340 planes used over long distances. The Scandinavian airline SAS also announced on Wednesday the cancellation of ten international flights on the same day from Stockholm, after thirty the day before, citing the absence of employees affected by Covid-19 or health recommendations.

This Thursday, Olivier Guérin, member of the Scientific Council, underlined the risks of increasing the duration of isolation to 17 days for contact cases of a person contaminated by Omicron for “the strategic sectors of operation of our company”, also citing “food distribution, security, energy, transport and communications”. Jean-François Delfraissy, the president of this body responsible for informing the government’s decisions in the fight against the epidemic, for his part, said he feared a “possible disorganization of the company” in january due to the spread “dazzling” variant, which could cause “hundreds of thousands of cases per day” by early 2022.

The day before, Professor Antoine Flahault, epidemiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Geneva, had already alerted to a directive that could quickly put “the country’s essential services at a standstill”.