Omicron stops more overseas flights: How it affects travellers
Quarantine time has been reduced in the US as Omicron rips through airline staff forcing flight cancellations. Here are the airlines most affected.
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The US has halved the amount of time people must isolate and quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19.
The nation’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced isolation time from 10 days to five.
Health officials similarly reduced the amount of time one should quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tests positive.
The changes come as holiday travel headaches and safety worries increased with thousands more flights cancelled and Omicron cases soaring after Christmas celebrations.
About 8300 flights were grounded globally and tens of thousands more delayed over the weekend — one of the year’s busiest travel periods — with multiple airlines saying that Omicron spikes caused staffing shortages.
Effects rippled worldwide and the hurt has spilt into the week following the Christmas weekend, with more than 2300 US flights cancelled Monday and over 700 more on Tuesday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.
The highly transmissible Omicron variant has sent new cases of the virus skyrocketing across the globe, with countries reviving lockdowns and air travel turning into a major global headache for global and Australian travellers.
Aircrew and ground staff have fallen sick or gone into quarantine after exposure to Covid, multiple airlines said.
Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, British Airways, Alaska Airlines and several others have been forced to cancel flights.
Chinese carriers, notably China Eastern and Air China, scrubbed several thousand flights over the weekend, including many going in and out of Xi’an, where 13 million people are in lockdown.
The American Automobile Association estimated more than 109 million Americans would travel by plane, train or car between December 23 and January 2, a 34 per cent increase over the last year.
But most of those plans were made before the detection of Omicron, which has become the dominant strain in the United States, overwhelming hospitals and healthcare workers.
As of 7am Eastern Standard Time (10pm AEST), here is how many flights some airlines had scrapped.
China Eastern
420 flights or 20 per cent
Air China
196 flights or 17 per cent
Lion Air
113 flights or 23 per cent
Alaskan Airlines
88 flights or 13 per cent
Delta
87 flights or 4 per cent
A Delta spokesman told Sky News: “Winter weather in portions of the US and the Omicron variant continued to impact Delta’s holiday weekend flight schedule.”
Shenzen
80 flights or 12 per cent
American Airlines
77 flights or 2 per cent
United
87 flights or 4 per cent
Jet Blue
66 flights or 6 per cent
A JetBlue spokesman told the New York Times, the airline had “seen an increasing number of sick calls from Omicron.”
“Swift and safe adjustments by the CDC would alleviate at least some of the staffing pressures and set up airlines to help millions of travellers returning from their holidays,” said the spokesman.
British Airways
45 flights or 9 per cent
Jetstar
20 flights or 6 per cent
Beijing Airlines
4 flights or 66 per cent
According to FlightAware, total flight delays on Monday, local time, were 4916 with total cancellations today 2221
Total flight delays within, into, or out of the United States were 938. Total cancellations within, into, or out of the US were 759.
At both origin and destination, Beijing and Jakarta were the worse affected airports with more than 70 flights cancelled at each.
The worse affected US airport was Seattle, which saw 68 of its incoming flights cancelled for Monday.
Also on Monday morning, the major airline carriers saw their shares fall in the premarket in response to the surge in weekend cancellations due to staffing shortages.
Chief Medical Advisor to the President of United States, Dr Anthony Fauci told MSNBC on Monday he thought making vaccination a requirement for domestic flights is “something that seriously should be considered.”
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