Several airlines have announced the cancellation of hundreds of flights around the entire country for Christmas Eve and Christmas due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
United Airlines had canceled 112 flights for Christmas Eve as of Thursday night because of an employee shortage related to the new COVID-19 outbreak that is hitting much of the United States.
It also canceled 27 flights for Christmas.
"The increase in omicron cases across the country this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation," United Airlines said in a press release late Thursday.
"As a consequence,
we have unfortunately had to cancel some flights
and we are notifying some customers in advance, before they go to the airport," the company added.
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Delta Airlines canceled 90 flights for Christmas Eve and 27 for Christmas, according to the count of the specialized page FlightAware.
"Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources, including route changes and the replacement of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flights, before we canceled about 90 flights for Friday," the company told the network. ABC News in a statement.
In recent days, cases of the omicron variant have multiplied rapidly throughout the country.
Some experts have even suggested suspending flights due to the new spike.
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However, aviation industry leaders have urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to
reduce the quarantine time for people who are fully vaccinated and who test positive for COVID- 19
, claiming that omicron could cause "significant disruption."
Currently the isolation period recommended by the CDC is 10 days.
Nick Caio, executive director of Airlines for America, the main lobbying group for commercial airlines in the country, proposed reducing the quarantine time to five days from the onset of symptoms for cases of postvaccine infections.
"Such individuals could complete the isolation period with an appropriate virus testing protocol," he wrote.
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But not everyone agreed.
The association of flight attendants and flight attendants AFA-CWA, which represents some 50,000 workers from 17 airlines, wrote a letter in support of the 10-day isolation period.
"We recognize that the time a person should be isolated is not a 'one size fits all' number of days. We also know that fully vaccinated people can be less infectious and for less time than unvaccinated people. Still, we consider their 10-day recommendation to represent a prudent middle ground, "reads a letter signed by AFA International president Sara Nelson.
"We don't see the justification for reducing the number of days at this point," he added.
