More travel problems: 4,500 flights canceled worldwide on the first day of the year

For air travelers around the world, the new year picked up where the previous one left off, with much frustration. More than 2,500 flights in U.S and nearly 4,500 worldwide were canceled this Saturday, according to flight monitoring service FlightAware.

It was the highest single-day figure since before Christmas, when airlines began claiming they were suffering from a staff shortage from a spike in HIV infections. Covid-19 between crews.

Since December 24, more than 12,000 flights in the United States have been canceled.

However, yesterday’s outages weren’t just due to the virus. Wintry weather made Chicago the worst place in the country for travelers, with 800 flights canceled at O’Hare Airport and more than 250 at Midway Airport.

The experts’ forecasts marked 23 centimeters of snow. Denver, Detroit and Newark airports in New Jersey were hit with at least 100 cancellations each.

Southwest Airlines, which has major operations in Chicago Midway and Denver, canceled more than 450 flights nationwide, or 13% of its services. American, Delta, United and JetBlue canceled more than 100 flights each.

SkyWest, a regional airline that operates flights under the names American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express, grounded more than 400 flights, or 21% of its scheduled services.

Among international airlines, China Eastern eliminated more than 500 flights, or about a quarter of its total, while Air China canceled more than 200 flights, a fifth of its plans, according to FlightAware.

Some airlines took steps to reduce cancellations. United offered to pay pilots triple or more their usual salary in exchange for taking over open flights until mid-January.

Southwest and others also increased premium payments for some workers.

Travelers who preferred or were able to travel by land also ran into problems. Transportation authorities in the north-central United States warned motorists that a mix of rain and snow could make roads slippery and reduce visibility, creating dangerous conditions.

On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration had anticipated that it expected flight delays over the weekend due to staff shortages related to the Covid-19 cases.

For its part, Delta Airlines projected between 200 and 300 daily cancellations due to the omicron variant in conjunction with inclement weather (The North American airline canceled more than 300 between Friday and Saturday).

Total commuter movement fell on New Year’s Eve by nearly 700,000 compared to 2020, from about 2.3 million to 1.6 million, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.

“The nationwide increase in cases of omicron had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation ”, said United Airlines, which yesterday canceled more than 220 flights.