JetBlue Airways announced that it plans to cancel approximately 1,280 flights between Dec. 30 and Jan. 13 amid a spike in COVID-19 outbreaks.
North America’s sixth-largest airline will be “proactively reducing” its schedule to give customers “as much notice possible,” CNBC reported. The airline cited rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in its home base of New York.
Between JetBlue, United Airlines, Delta, and American Airlines, more than 8,000 flights have been canceled since Christmas Eve, according to Flight Aware, an airline tracking website. Flight Aware reported a total of 2,855 cancellations worldwide on Dec. 30. Approximately 1,235 of those flights were within, into, or out of the U.S.
Christmas weekend saw a significant uptick in canceled flights, with over 1,500 flights canceled into, within, or out of the U.S., per Flight Aware. (RELATED: More Than 700 Flights Canceled Amid Omicron Surge)
Spokespeople for Delta, JetBlue, and United Airlines told the New York Post that the cancellations are caused in part by staffing shorts and the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. The airlines reported that both caused approximately 10% of their Christmas season flights to be canceled.
On Dec. 23, United Airlines took a similar approach by preemptively canceling a minimum of 112 flights citing a spike in COVID-19 cases.
BREAKING: United Airlines is preemptively cancelling flights due to Omicron impacts on flight crews. 112 flights are cancelled already for Friday. pic.twitter.com/YFIe58Sd1O
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) December 23, 2021
Representatives for Delta, United, and American did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.