About 1,280 flights that were on the New York-based airline’s schedule through January 13 have been cancelled. That’s about 10% of what the airline had planned to run through then.
A lot of people are getting Omicron in the Northeast, and that could make it even more difficult for flight crews to get to work in the next few days.
For the next week or two, we expect the number of COVID cases in the northeast, where most of our crew members live, to keep going up. This means that there is a good chance of more cancellations until case counts start to go down.
In a sign that airlines are bracing for long delays because of the Omicron surge, JetBlue has cut back on its flight schedule.
A photo of Nicolas Economou by Getty Images.
JetBlue’s stock was down a little in early trading on Thursday. Shares have lost about 2% so far this week.
There haven’t been any changes to other US airlines’ January schedules yet. But, based on cuts to JetBlue’s, it looks like airlines are bracing for long delays because of an Omicron surge.
A third of Ryanair’s planned flights for next month have been cancelled because of Omicron-related concerns, according to a report.
The top US airlines, like JetBlue, American, and Delta, had to cancel a lot of flights over the last week because of staffing shortages and seasonal weather problems.
Another 173 flights scheduled for Thursday have been cancelled by JetBlue. That’s about 17% of the flights the company had planned. Another 50 flights are going to be late.
FlightAware says that so far on Thursday, more than 1,000 flights inside, outside, or into or out of the United States have been cancelled.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut the recommended isolation time for people with asymptomatic COVID-19 cases from 10 days to five days this week. This is down from the previous recommendation of 10 days.
Delta and JetBlue, two of the biggest airlines in the world, lobbied for a reduced isolation threshold for people who had been vaccinated. They said this was necessary because Omicron was causing staffing problems.
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