The holiday season has been marked by delayed or canceled flights, causing chaos in most U.S. airports, as sick staff and fears of contracting COVID-19 increase. Faced with the prospect of having to deal with unruly passengers, many pilots and cabin crew even waive overtime bonuses.
This reluctance, combined with bad weather and understaffing, has resulted in the cancellation of more than 8,000 flights in the past eight days, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com.
“All flight attendants, regardless of how they secured their match, will receive 200% compensation for any match that affects December 28 through January 4,” the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said in a statement. communic. The union represented about 4,000 flight attendants at Spirit Airlines, according to the carrier’s latest annual statement.
The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Earlier this year, Spirit Airlines, headquartered in Florida, was forced to cancel nearly 3,000 flights due to bad weather and understaffing.
JetBlue Airways Corp said Thursday in an obligation to its customers that 75% of its crew are based in the northeastern United States, an area that has been hit hard by COVID-19 infections. The carrier has already cut approximately 1,280 flights https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/jetblue-cuts-about-1280-flights-through-mid-january-omicron-hurdles-2021-12 -30 / #: ~: text = Dec% 2030% 20% 20-% 20JetBlue, airline% 20told% 20Reuters% 20on% 20Thursday its schedule until January 13.
Alaska Air Group Inc said that while the pandemic had affected its operations, the vast majority of cancellations and delays were due to bad weather.
Last week, the airline agreed to offer certain benefits such as the introduction of wage protections in the event of reassignment on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, AFA said.
Hawaiian Airlines said it did not offer new incentives to its staff for work during the holiday season.
SkyWest Airlines said its operations continue to be affected by weather conditions and the Omicron variant, which is spreading rapidly and causing record cases across the United States. (Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram and additional reporting by Aishwarya Nair Bengaluru; editing by Anil D’Silva and Bernard Orr)