Omicron Causing Havoc in the Skies as More Than 4000 Flights Cancelled Worldwide

A flight tracking website noted that SkyWest and SouthWest were the two airlines with the most cancellations.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: The Quint/Aroop Mishra)

As the world witnesses a surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant, more than 4,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday, 2nd January, Reuters reported.

More than 50 percent of these flights were American flights.

According to a flight tracking website called FlightAware.com, over 2,400 entering, departing from or within the US were cancelled, and over 11,200 flights were delayed.

The American authorities recorded a minimum of 346,869 new coronavirus on Saturday, 1st January, based on the data compiled by Reuters.

Almost 850,000 people have already died of COVID in the United States.

FlightAware.com also said that SkyWest Airlines and Southwest Airlines (both American) were the two airlines with the most cancellations - 510 and 419 respectively.

At this point of the year, travelling is at its peak due to Christmas and New Year holidays.

The rapid spread of the Omicron variant however, has forced authorise to initiate flight cancellations.

Omicron's numbers are steadily increasing in India as well.

1,700 cases of the "variant of concern" (as designated by the World Health Organization) have been recorded across 23 states and Union territories in the country as of now, as per the most recent data published by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

(With inputs from Reuters)