Over 4,500 flights were cancelled around the world by Saturday and thousands more were delayed as the highly infectious Omicron variant disrupted holiday travel, according to tracking website Flightaware.
According to Flightaware.com, more than 2,500 flights were scrubbed around the globe on Christmas Day, including more than 870 originating from or headed to US airports, with some 4,200 delays as of 1430 GMT.
"Help @united flight cancelled again. I want to get home for Christmas," one exasperated traveler from the US state of Vermont tweeted to the airline early Saturday. "The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation," United said in a statement Friday.
The cancellations added to the pandemic frustration for many people eager to reunite with their families over the holidays, after last year's Christmas was severely curtailed. The state of New York announced Friday that it recorded 44,431 new daily positive Covid tests, a new record.
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