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Christmas travel woes at Atlanta airport
Families were stranded in Atlanta after a wave of flight cancelations. The experience put a damper on the holiday spirit for several travelers at Atlanta's airport.
ATLANTA - Waves of holiday flight cancellations continued on Christmas Day at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The mass cancellations began earlier this week during the surge of holiday travel.
FlightAware on Saturday morning showed 85 flight cancellations at Atlanta's airport. Data available at around 10 a.m. Saturday showed 10% of all flights originating from Atlanta and 8% destined to Atlanta were canceled.
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Delta Air Lines and United Airlines together canceled more than 600 flights on Friday and Saturday.
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Crew shortages cancel flights in Atlanta
Delta and United have cancelled hundreds of flights. Airlines urge passengers to check their flight status throughout the weekend.
The flight-tracking website reported Delta, an Atlanta-based airline, had canceled 286 flights nationwide, about 14%.
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Some airlines blamed the COVID-19 omicron variant surge for the mass cancellations.
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Omicron variant spread forces airlines to cancel flights
Thousands of travelers at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport were left without a flight on Christmas Eve as airlines said they were forced to cancel flights due to being short staffed as the omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads across the country.
In a statement released Friday, United wrote:
"The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation. As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport. We’re sorry for the disruption and are working hard to rebook as many people as possible and get them on their way for the holidays."
Delta also released a statement that reads:
"Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources -- including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying -- before canceling around 135 flights for Friday. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans. Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight. Customers are encouraged to check delta.com or the Fly Delta app for updates related to their specific flight."
The airlines are urging passengers to check their flights and the airlines for updates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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