As airlines continued to cancel hundreds of flights Saturday and Sunday because of staffing issues tied to COVID-19, travelers making their way around the U.S. on one of the busiest travel times of the year were left scrambling -- or dealing with delays.
FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, noted nearly 1,000 canceled flights entering, leaving or inside the U.S. Saturday, up from 690 flights scrapped on Friday. More than 2,000 flights were already canceled as of Sunday morning and nearly 6,00 were delayed nationwide. FlightAware does not say why flights are canceled.
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One traveler heading through Jacksonville International Airport on Saturday said her flight into JAX from New Orleans landed 3½ hours later than it was scheduled to originally.
FlightAware showed five departing flights and seven arriving flights at JAX canceled on Saturday. One departing flight was delayed, and four arriving flights were delayed.
Even for travelers not affected by the woes, the worries were real.
Traveler Dominique McKnight flew into Jacksonville International Airport on a Delta flight from California on Saturday and said he had doubts about being able to make it -- but his flight was delayed only 10 minutes.
“I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t worried. I didn’t want to be stuck in an airport trying to come back,” McKnight said. “We got home safe. That’s all that counts.”
Delta, United and JetBlue had all said Friday that the omicron variant was causing staffing problems leading to flight cancellations. United spokesperson Maddie King said staffing shortages were still causing cancellations and it was unclear when normal operations would return. “This was unexpected,” she said of omicron's impact on staffing. Delta and JetBlue did not respond to questions Saturday.
According to FlightAware, the three airlines canceled more than 10% of their scheduled Saturday flights. American Airlines also canceled more than 90 flights Saturday, about 3% of its schedule, according to FlightAware. American spokesperson Derek Walls said the cancellations stemmed from “COVID-related sick calls." European and Australian airlines have also canceled holiday-season flights because of staffing problems tied to COVID-19.
FlightAware’s data shows airlines scrapped more than 6,000 flights globally for Friday, Saturday and Sunday combined as of Saturday evening, with almost one-third of affected flights to, from or within the United States. Chinese airlines made up many of the canceled flights, and Chinese airports topped FlightAware’s lists of those with most cancellations. It wasn’t clear why. China has strict pandemic control measures, including frequent lockdowns, and the government set one on Xi’an, a city of 13 million people, earlier this week.
Air China, China Eastern and Lion Air, an Indonesian airline with many canceled flights, did not respond to emails Saturday.
Flight delays and cancellations tied to staffing shortages have been a regular problem for the U.S. airline industry this year. Airlines encouraged workers to quit in 2020, when air travel collapsed, and were caught short-staffed this year as travel recovered.
To ease staffing shortages, countries including Spain and the U.K. have reduced the length of COVID-19 quarantines by letting people return to work sooner after testing positive or being exposed to the virus.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian was among those who have called on the Biden administration to take similar steps or risk further disruptions in air travel. On Thursday, the U.S. shortened COVID-19 isolation rules for health care workers only.