More than 7,000 flights cancelled this weekend worldwide.

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More than 7,000 flights were cancelled worldwide by airlines over the Christmas long weekend due to the meteoric progression of the omicron variant of covid-19, which is particularly affecting aircrews.

Europe is currently the region with the most cases, with 3,022,868 in the last seven days, 57% of the world total, as well as the highest number of deaths, followed by the United States and Canada (1,421,516 new infections), reported AFP.

Avianca plans to transport more than 2 million passengers during holiday season.

According to the latest report from the Flightaware website, there were nearly 2,000 flight cancellations on Sunday, of which more than 570 were U.S.-related travel, either international or domestic.

On Saturday, the same site had identified nearly 2,800 flight cancellations, 970 of them U.S.-related.

On Friday, cancellations hovered around 2,400 and delays approached 11,000, according to Flightaware.

Numerous airlines had to quarantine pilots, flight attendants and other personnel who were exposed to covid. As a result, Lufthansa, Delta and United Airlines had to cancel flights.

According to Flightaware, United Airlines cancelled 439 flights on Friday and Saturday, about 10% of those scheduled.

Copa Airlines will resume flights to Rosario, Argentina, beginning in February.

“The spike in cases of omicron across the country this week has had a direct impact on our crews and the people who run our operations,” explained the U.S. carrier, which said it is working to find solutions for affected passengers.

Delta Air Lines also canceled more than 300 flights on Saturday and 170 the day before, again according to Flightaware, which cites Omicron as the primary cause of the cancellations, and, occasionally, adverse weather conditions.

“Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources” before arriving at these cancellations, the airline argued.

More than 10 Alaska Airlines flights were also canceled, whose employees said they had been “potentially exposed to the virus” and announced their decision to quarantine themselves.

Snowfall and heavy rain

Weather conditions also contributed to flight cancellations.

Chinese airlines were responsible for most of the cancellations: China Eastern cut about 540 flights, more than a quarter of its scheduled total, while Air China canceled 267, also about a quarter of its scheduled departures.

In Japan more than 100 domestic flights were suspended Sunday due to heavy snowfall in the north and west of the country, Japan’s two largest airlines said.

ANA Holdings had suspended 79 flights as of 4 p.m., affecting about 5,100 passengers, said Hiroaki Hayakawa, the airline’s chief operating officer.

Japan Airlines had canceled 49 flights as of 4 p.m., affecting 2,460 passengers, a representative from the airline’s operations division said.

All these cancellations are a major blow to the long-awaited resumption of travel for the year-end vacations, after a Christmas 2020 hard hit by the pandemic.

In the United States, according to Automobile Association estimates, more than 109 million people were expected to leave their immediate area by plane, train or automobile between December 23 and January 2, a 34% increase over last year.

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