Omicron spike in US forces airlines to cancel over 200 Christmas Eve flights

The continued spread of the Omicron variant across the US has led to the cancellation of more than 200 flights that were scheduled for Christmas Eve by various US airlines, US media reports said.

This comes as the US is witnessing a surge in new COVID-19 cases. In recent days, the daily infections have surpassed more than 200,000 cases.

"We're seeing about 120 cancellations planned for Friday," a United Airlines spokesperson said.

"The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation," United Airlines said in a statement. "As a result, we've unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport. We're sorry for the disruption and are working hard to rebook as many people as possible and get them on their way for the holidays."

Delta Air Lines also said that it would be preemptively cancelling roughly 90 flights on Christmas Eve.

"Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources -- including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying -- before cancelling around 90 flights for Friday," the airline said in a statement provided to The Hill.

"We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans. Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight," said Delta.

As many friends and families consider whether to celebrate Christmas together, the UN health agency had issued a reminder on Wednesday that "anyone who ignores COVID-19 is...perpetuating it".

That message from Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Eastern Mediterranean region, indicated that the pandemic is far from over, wherever you may live.

Al-Mandhari said despite the holiday season, "failure to apply the established public health and social measures could cause alarming surges in the number of COVID-19 cases and related deaths".

( With inputs from ANI )