1,400 flights canceled Wednesday as airlines’ troubles persist

Travelers awoke to more frustrating news Wednesday, with more than 1,400 flight cancellations, a sign that staffing shortages and weather-related issues continue to stymie airlines’ efforts to get customers to their destinations. According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, more than 1,400 flights within, to and from the United States had been canceled as of midmorning, a number likely to increase through the day. There is no indication when flight operations may stabilize. Monday, when more than 3,000 U.S. flights were canceled, was the worst day for those traveling during the holiday period. By Tuesday, the number had dropped to just over 1,500. Even so, since Dec. 24, the travel plans of thousands of people have been disrupted by a combination of bad weather and staffing shortages. Those shortages have been attributed to a rise in coronavirus infections among airline employees — a trend that mirrors what is happening in other business sectors. The omicron variant, which surfaced around Thanksgiving, has led to a rise in infections in the United States and around the world.

Nearly 20,000 U.S. flights have been canceled since Christmas Eve. JetBlue trimmed more than 1,200 flights from its schedule this month to try to better aligning available staffing with flight offerings. The carrier is based in New York, which has been a hot spot for coronavirus infections fueled by the omicron variant. Alaska Airlines — which was forced to cancel or delay many of its flights after a Dec. 26 storm dumped 3.4 inches of snow on Seattle — had encouraged passengers to reconsider nonessential travel until after New Year’s because of limited capacity to rebook passengers stranded by the storm. Over the past two weeks, virtually all U.S. airlines have canceled or delayed flights, leaving travelers with few options for rebooking. Some carriers, including Southwest Airlines, operated relatively normal schedules leading to the Christmas holidays, only to find themselves hit hard as the new year approached. Southwest, which had canceled 455 flights, or 15 percent of those scheduled, as of Wednesday morning, according to FlightAware, is still trying to recover from storms that hit hubs in Chicago and Baltimore over the weekend and Monday. Weather is often a factor during the days around Christmas and New Year’s, but operations have been complicated by higher-than-expected numbers of employees taking sick leave because of the coronavirus.