The Omicron mutant caused the cancellation of 4,000 flights around the world yesterday, Sunday
The mutant Omicron caused the cancellation of 4,000 flights around the world on Sunday, more than half of them from American flights, adding to the disruption in the travel sector during holidays due to bad weather and an increase in infections with the Corona virus.
According to a statistic on Flight Aware, more than 2,400 flights within or departing from the United States had been canceled by 8 p.m. Sunday GMT, and more than 11,200 flights were delayed.
Among the companies affected by the largest number of cancellations, according to the site, “SkyWest” and “Southwest”, as the first canceled 510 flights and the second 419 flights.
The Christmas and New Year holiday season is usually a prime time for air travel, but the rapid spread of the Omicron strain has led to a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights as their pilots and crew go into quarantine.
Specialized websites also said that the total number of canceled flights globally on Saturday exceeded 4,600, while the number of delayed flights reached 11,100, including 6,070 flights in the United States alone.
Omicron is still causing an acceleration of infections globally in many major markets, with warnings issued by the World Health Organization last week, saying that the new mutant is high risk.
And the US authorities recorded at least 346,869 infections the day before yesterday, according to Reuters statistics, and deaths due to the Corona virus in the United States rose by at least 377 deaths, bringing the total to 828,562 deaths.