Americans stranded at Christmas over Omicron spread

In the United States, many have been stranded at Christmas amid mass flight cancellations. Flights continued to be canceled by the hundreds across the US over the Christmas weekend as airline workers come down with the highly contagious COVID-19 Omicron variant.

Nearly one thousand flights domestic and international flights with one leg in the US were shelved Saturday, up from 690 grounded flights the day before, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.

More than 600 flights scheduled to depart in the US on Sunday had already been canceled.

Representatives from Delta, United and JetBlue said the disruptions were tied to staffing problems related to the spread of the variant as the three airlines canceled over 10 percent of their Christmas flights.

American Airlines said its 90 Saturday cancellations stemmed from “COVID-related sick calls.”

A United spokesperson said it was unclear when the “unexpected” cancellations would resume.