Nearly 5,000 Flights Canceled Globally As Omicron Infects Airline Employees

'Almost 5,000 flights were canceled across the world over Christmas weekend,' reports NBC News, 'as holiday travel plans were brought to a halt amid the rapidly spreading omicron variant of Covid-19.'

About 2,800 global flights were canceled on Christmas Day alone, according to flight tracker FlightAware, with some airline companies citing the spread of the new variant as the cause for the disruption...

Several major airlines, including United, Delta and Alaska, said they had been forced to cancel hundreds of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day flights after the omicron variant infected employees and crew members. United said some of its 210 cancellations Saturday were also a result of close contact situations.

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