Over 1,200 flights canceled on the third day of Christmas weekend
(KYMA, KECY) - U.S. airlines canceled more than 1,200 flights Sunday, marking the third day in a row of holiday travel chaos.
The major airlines blame the cancellations on staff and crew being out sick because of the continued surge of the omicron COVID variant.
In addition to the 1,200 flights canceled, at least another 5,000 were delayed, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
United Airlines was forced to cancel 10% of its total schedule on Christmas Eve and another 12% of scheduled flights on Christmas.
Delta canceled 173 flights on Christmas Eve and JetBlue was forced to scrap about 7% of its overall schedule.
Globally, 6,000 flights were scratched on Christmas Eve, Christmas and the day after Christmas.