Over 2,500 flights canceled in the United States

(Washington) Taking a plane was an obstacle course in the United States on Sunday, right back from the Christmas holidays, with more than 2,500 flights canceled, the weather adding to the disruptions related to the Omicron variant.

The United States has been crossed by the winter storm since Saturday Frida and by 7:30 p.m. local (12:30 a.m. GMT), 2,599 domestic, inbound or outbound flights from the United States had been canceled, compared to 2,750 for the entire day on Saturday, according to the FlightAware website.

This represents more than half of the 4,312 flights canceled globally at the same time.

And more than 15,000 have been delayed worldwide, including 7,561 in the United States.

Strong winds, floods and snowfall have in fact added to the disruptions that have affected the entire aviation sector around the world for a week in the United States. The highly contagious Omicron variant prevents many pilots, flight or ground personnel, sick or in the event of contact, from coming to work.

This lack of personnel forces companies to reduce their flight plans. Last weekend, just after Christmas, around 7,500 planes were canceled across the world.

Southwest passenger Nick Kagy has had his flight canceled. “We waited almost three hours to change reservations, because we couldn’t change reservations online, and after having sorted out (not completely) things, you canceled our second flight to another airport,” laments he on Twitter.

Expected to return 4 days ago

“It’s the 3^e cancelation […]. I was supposed to return four days ago ”, tweeted at the end of the day on Sunday Hayley, a passenger of the same company, from Chicago (Illinois).

Chicago airports have been the most affected Saturday globally since Saturday. About half of the flights there were canceled on Sunday, as the region experienced heavy snowfall.

But the situation was also complicated in Denver (Colorado), Newark (New Jersey), or Detroit (Michigan).

The situation is expected to remain complicated on Monday, for the first working day of 2022, with more than 2,000 flights already canceled.

In the United States, the storm Frida will continue its route to touch the east coast, bringing snow from Boston to the south of the federal capital Washington, and more than 1000 flights planned will not be able to be ensured.

The lack of personnel will also continue to disrupt the operation of airports, with luggage sometimes very difficult to recover, or a long wait on the phone for passengers trying to reach their destination.

Eric Crawford, for example, lamented on Twitter to have been notified by the company Delta Airline “an estimated wait of more than 22 hours to be able to have someone online following the cancellation of a flight”.

Kowshick Boddu explained to him on the social network that he had to take a flight from Fairbanks (Alaska) to San José (California) on December 30 with Air Alaska, “but our flight has been postponed to today [dimanche], and finally canceled again? ? ? Long hours on the phone, no answer, and flights that are not rescheduled? Need help ! ”