Friday December 24th 2021
High sickness levels among pilots
3000 flights canceled over Christmas
The time around Christmas is traditionally an important travel time. But this year thousands of jets remain on the ground. The airlines justify the flight cancellations with high levels of sick leave.
Over the Christmas holidays, more than 3000 flights have been canceled worldwide. According to the FlightAware website, airlines canceled 2325 connections on Christmas Eve alone, and more than 8000 more were delayed. Another 1,400 flights were canceled on December 25th.
A quarter of the flights canceled on Christmas Eve were in the United States. Airlines contacted by the news agency AFP justified the failures mainly with sickness reports in connection with the corona virus. The US airline United had to cancel more than 170 flights – and thus around nine percent of the planned flights. “This week’s nationwide surge in Omicron cases had a direct impact on our crews and the people who keep our operations going,” United said.
Lufthansa reduces winter flight schedule
The airline Delta had to cancel more than 145 flights on December 24th. As a justification, the airline named both the Omikron variant of the corona virus and weather-related problems. At Alaska Airlines, too, numerous employees had to go into self-isolation after corona contacts, and more than ten flights had to be canceled.
According to an estimate by the American Automobile Association, 109 million people in the United States planned to travel between December 23 and January 2. This was 34 percent more than in the previous year. Most of the trips for this year’s Christmas season, however, had already been booked before the appearance of the Omikron variant.
Lufthansa also canceled a dozen long-distance flights over Christmas because too many pilots reported sick at the same time. In addition, the group announced on Thursday that it would significantly reduce its program in the new year due to a lack of demand. In the winter flight schedule, every tenth flight planned will be canceled, a total of 33,000 connections will be canceled, as CEO Carsten Spohr announced.