Omicron Causes Chaos for Holiday Flyers
Joe Cortez December 28, 2021
CNN reports global carriers cancelled a total of over 6,000 flights between December 24 and 26, 2021.
U.S. Travel: 7.4 Million Flyers over Christmas, Over 4,000 Cancelled Flights
In the United States alone, data from the Transportation Security Administration shows over 7 million travelers passed through airport checkpoints between Friday and Sunday of the Christmas holiday. However, many of those same travelers experienced problems getting to their destination – or will have problems getting home. Citing data from FlightAware.com, CNN notes around 4,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday and Monday, December 26 and 27, 2021. On Tuesday, December 28, FlightAware reported over 1,200 cancellations on flights within, entering, or departing the U.S.
Airlines say the problem lies with available staff to ensure flights get to their destination safely. Numerous airline employees have called in sick due to COVID-19 Omicron infections, which have affected nearly industry facing the public. According to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center, over 52 million Americans – or 16 percent of the population – have contracted a confirmed case of the virus.
As the novel Coronavirus continues to complicate life for travelers across the country, both airlines and flyers are trying to share advice to make travel less complicated. Alaska Airlines is asking travelers to push back their holiday travel and reconnect with friends and family at a later time, while an attorney and frequent flyer shared her best tips on how to deal with getting involuntarily denied boarding on TikTok.
@erikakullbergWhat airlines don’t want you to know about getting “bumped” 🤯 #lawyer #travel #money♬ original sound – Money Lawyer Erika
Airline Meltdowns Come After Congress Questions Airlines Over Staffing
The latest round of airline meltdowns are the fourth to affect the country and the first widespread incident across carriers. Throughout the summer, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines all experienced outages due to a shortage of staff.
The problems caught the attention of Congress, with the U.S. Senate Transportation Committee calling on the major airline executives to testify on their usage of Payroll Support Program funds throughout the pandemic. Although the public left with very few answers, outgoing Southwest CEO Gary Kelly tested positive for the virus after the hearing was complete.
I would say that first, the author needs to proofread before posting, because please, we are educated and that’s why we are frequent flyers. Good luck staying in business. Second, how could anyone with a brain not have foreseen this? It smacks of nepotism, hypocrisy, and that ilk. How could the author even cite the tick tock imposter-barrister? It’s a new year, time to find a real frequent flyer website.
So thousands of people crowded into airports waiting for hours at a time is somehow better than having them on super-ventilated flights where transmission is minimal?
I know AA kept many employees at home while paying them with the PPP funds they were receiving without working to find work for them. Then they INVOLUNTARY SEPERATED them when that money ran out. And now they want to whine about employee shortages, They used all this to cut those making top pay to be able to hire a lower pay New-Hire and then want the traveling public to pay for it while they get them trained. FORCE them to reinstate EVERU employee who didnt take a buyout offer.
You can even call back the ones that took the offer.