Airlines around the world have cancelled more than 4,500 Christmas weekend flights.
A wave of COVID-19 infections caused by the omicron variant has caused great uncertainty and misery for Christmas holiday travelers, according to foreign reports.
About a quarter of them are US-affiliated airlines.
In Brussels time at 4.40 pm, there were at least 2,116 flights canceled on Christmas Eve, according to the FlightAware website.
These included 499 domestic and international flights in and out of the United States.
On Thursday, 2,231 flights were canceled.
When the French news agency contacted the airlines they said that the current wave of the epidemic had affected staff as a major reason for the cancellation.
Alaska Airlines staff said they had been exposed to the virus and had to self-quarantine, forcing the company to remove more than 10 flights.
The cancellations come at a time when many are hoping to resume holiday travel after the plague in the 2020 Christmas season.
According to American reports, between December 23 and January 2, more than 109 million Americans were scheduled to leave their homes by plane, train, or car.
This is an increase of 34% over the previous year.
American Airlines, for example, planned 5,300 flights last Thursday. That is equivalent to 86% of its flight program during the relevant period of the final Christmas season of 2019, before the epidemic.
However, many of these flights were planned before the arrival of the Omicron variant, which spreads at maximum speed and many people now have to isolate themselves even when there are no symptoms.
