Flight information on a departure board at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) in Atlanta, Georgia.
Elijah Nouvelage / Bloomberg
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Air travelers saw more than 2,500 canceled flights within, to, or from the United States and more than 6,300 delays on Sunday as winter weather and staff shortages continue to plague the country’s airlines.
The ongoing effects of a storm that dropped up to five inches of snow on Chicago resulted in flights from its two major airports. On Sunday, Chicago O’Hare International had 27% cancellations, according to air traffic tracker FlightAware. On Saturday, 44% of O’Hare and 54% of Chicago Midway International flights were canceled.
On Sunday,
Southwest Airlines
(Ticker: LUV) has canceled 11% of its flights while, according to FlightAware
JetBlue
(JBLU) had canceled 16%,
Delta Airlines
(DAL) 6% and
American Airlines
(AAL) 5%.
SkyWest
,
(SKYW), which operates regional airlines for United Airlines, Delta, American and Alaska Airlines, canceled 22% of its flights at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
JetBlue
According to FlightAware, already showed cancellations of 10% of its flights on Monday. In December, the airline announced that it would do so trim his schedule until mid-January due to staff shortages.
“As with many companies and organizations, we have seen an increase in the number of sick leave from Omicron,” JetBlue said in an email to Barron’s. “We started the Christmas season with the highest workforce since the beginning of the pandemic and are using all available resources to meet our staffing needs. “
The statement went on to say, “The health and safety of our crew and customers remains our number one priority in managing this pandemic, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience these schedule changes bring.”
JetBlue said it offers more perks for crew members to pick up shifts they weren’t scheduled for and moves managers to operations where they’re trained for their role.
In a statement emailed to Barron’s,
SkyWest
said, “We are continuing to experience the effects of the weather and the Omicron variant at several SkyWest hubs and have been proactively canceling a significant number of flights due to weekend weather in Chicago, Denver and Detroit. Our teams work non-stop to minimize the impact on customers and crew. Customers should check their airline’s website or app for the latest information on their flight. “
The problems arise when U.S. air traffic tries to return to normal during a holiday season already marked by a surge in the latest variant of the coronavirus.
On Saturday, the first day of 2022, 1.6 million people passed airport security checks, according to the Transportation Security Administration. This compares to 1.2 million on the same day in 2021 and 2.2 million in 2020 almost 80% more than 2020 but still 30% lower than 2019.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced their recommendation for isolation after a Covid-19 infection from 10 to five days. Airlines and other industries had pushed for reduced isolation times to get employees back to work faster.
“While the new CDC guidelines should help get crew members back to work sooner, and our downsizing of schedule and other efforts will further ease cancellation days, we expect the number of COVID cases to drop in the Northeast – where most of ours Crew members have their seat – will continue to climb for the next week or two, “JetBlue said in its statement.
Write to Liz Moyer at liz.moyer@barrons.com
