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 linked to the Omicron variant.
The United States has been crossed since Saturday by the winter storm Frida and around 7:30 p.m. local (00:30 GMT), 2,599 domestic flights, coming from or arriving from the United States had been canceled, against 2,750 for the whole of the Saturday day, according to the FlightAware website.
This represents more than half of the 4,312 flights canceled worldwide at the same time.
And more than 15,000 have been delayed worldwide, including 7,561 in the United States.
Violent winds, floods and snowfall have in fact added to the disturbances that have affected the entire aviation sector in 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 is forcing 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 3 hours to change reservations because we couldn’t change reservations online, and after having sorted things out (not completely), you canceled our second flight to another airport,” he laments. he on Twitter.
– Expected to return 4 days ago –
“This is the 3rd cancellation (…). I was supposed to return 4 days ago”, tweeted at the end of the day Hayley, a passenger of the same company, on Sunday, 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 should 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 1,000 planned flights 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 (Sunday, Editor’s note) , and finally canceled again ??? Long hours on the phone, no answer, and flights that are not rescheduled? Need help! “
jul / ybl
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