Air travel remained severely disrupted in the United States on Saturday, with unfavorable weather in several parts of the country adding to the disruption to global skies due to the outbreak of COVID-19 cases linked to the Omicron variant.
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The United States had 2,660 canceled flights since the start of the day, more than half of the 4,617 that have been canceled globally, around 7:30 p.m. (00:30 GMT), according to the FlightAware website.
In addition, 4,798 domestic flights to or from the United States were or were delayed Saturday, out of a total of 9,432 for the day worldwide.
The most affected US airline is SkyWest, which had to cancel 23% of its flight plan, according to the site.
In the United States, Chicago (north) airports were particularly affected, with about half of departing or arriving flights canceled, due to difficult weather conditions, with a snowstorm expected in that region on Saturday afternoon and in the night.
And passengers should know another complicated day Sunday, the day back from the Christmas holidays: the site reports 1,175 flights canceled for the United States, and 2,134 worldwide.
Global air transport remains seriously disrupted by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which is extremely contagious. Many pilots and flight crew members are absent after contracting Covid-19, or are in contact and therefore in quarantine, forcing companies, which do not have enough staff to ensure the flights, to cancel them.
About 7,500 flights were canceled by airlines around the world over Christmas weekend.