Air travel continued to experience severe disruption in the United States on Saturday, with bad weather in parts of the country adding to the impact of a massive spike in COVID-19 infections fueled by the Omicron variant. The United States recorded 2,723 canceled flights, or more than half of the 4,698 canceled worldwide, at around 11:00 p.m. (04:00 GMT Sunday),
According to the tracking site FlightAware. In addition, 5,993 domestic flights were delayed on Saturday, out of a total of 11,043 worldwide for the day. .airline was SkyWest, which had to cancel 23% of its flight schedule, according to the site. In the United States, Chicago airports have been hit particularly hard by bad weather, with a snowstorm expected in the region on Saturday afternoon and overnight. The global airline industry is still recovering from the highly contagious variant of Omicron.
Many pilots, flight attendants and other staff are absent from work after contracting COVID-19 or because they are quarantined in the back to come into contact with an infected person. About 7,500 flights were canceled from airlines around the world during the Christmas weekend.
