Airport suspension in the US increases before New Year’s Eve | Aviation News

Thousands of flights have been suspended this week due to torrential rains and a shortage of personnel due to COVID-19.

Flight suspensions are increasingly common in the US, with 1,086 planes being canceled while rising coronavirus cases have disrupted staff. Meanwhile, a frigid windstorm threatened to disrupt trips over the weekend of New Year’s Eve.

JetBlue Airways Corp. made 175 flights, accounting for 17% of its time, by 11:37 am Thursday in New York, according to FlightAware.com. Allegiant banned 89 flights, or 18% of its operations. United Airlines Holdings Inc. set 192 times, representing 8% of its time. By morning, the total ban was over 1,084 who had entered all Wednesday.

The turmoil comes after thousands of planes were suspended over the Christmas holidays and earlier this week as a cold storm combined with a reduction in staff due to the spread of coronavirus cases from the omicron species.

“Like many businesses and corporations, we’ve seen an increase in sick phones from omicron,” JetBlue said via email. To give customers time to make other plans, a shipping company from New York distributed its schedule until January 13th.

Although the government’s plan to reduce the time limit for most people who tested for five days out of 10 is expected to help workers, “we expect the number of Covid cases in the northeast – where most of the staff settled – to continue to improve in the next week or two,” he said. JetBlue.

United also cited a lack of omicron-related staff, as did Allegiant Travel Co., which also specializes in air safety and operations.

The Transportation Security Administration said it showed 2.02 million people around the US on Wednesday.

Atlanta was one of the hardest hit and delayed Thursday morning, according to FlightAware. To the southeast it rained heavily, and a flood warning was issued in the Atlanta area.

No relief is expected soon.

Heavy snowfall is expected in most parts of the west Thursday, according to the National Weather Service, with hail and ice mixes “expected to create a New Year’s Day atmosphere from the front of the Rockies to the Midwest and the Great Lakes.” over 100 Saturday.

Airlines probably do not see much of the impact on profits, said a Cowen Inc. expert. Helane Becker. Most of the banned aircraft will be booked and passengers will be able to use larger aircraft to combine operations, he said.

“Airlines are doing everything they can to help passengers,” Becker said via email. “But as far as the impact is concerned, we don’t think it will be important for the fourth result.”