At least 2,800 flights were canceled this Monday (27) in the world amid the advance of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to the website Flight Aware, which compiles data on aviation.
The suspensions, which could extend into the last week of the year, affected around 8,300 flights over the Christmas weekend, when airline crews had to be quarantined because of the variant.
On Monday, Anthony Fauci, the top US adviser on pandemic-related matters, recommended that the federal government consider making vaccination a requirement for domestic air travel. According to The New York Times, nearly 1,000 flights were canceled in the United States this Monday.
“That’s a requirement that I think it’s reasonable to consider,” Fauci, a member of the White House’s Covid-19 response team, said in an interview with MSNBC. The expert also added that making vaccination mandatory in this context could also encourage more people to get immunized.
The United States registered an average of more than 190,000 new cases daily in the last seven days, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. New York authorities have warned of an increase in hospitalizations for children under the age of five, who have not yet reached vaccination age, and which accounted for half of the city’s admissions between December 5 and 19.
In a conversation with the press, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, did not answer whether the obligation will be adopted for domestic air travel.
In early December, Biden had already announced new measures to combat the coronavirus in the country, including changes to entry protocols for international travelers, who now have to submit a Covid-19 test with a negative result performed up to one day before departure.
While some cancellation cases were caused by bad weather and maintenance issues in the United States, many airlines claimed that the current wave of coronavirus cases contributed significantly to the picture.
Companies such as Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and British Airways canceled trips because the pandemic caused a shortage of pilots and other crew members, who had to remain in isolation.
Share prices in United, Delta, American and Southwest, the four largest US operators, took a small drop on Monday.
The sector’s recovery, with a greater number of travelers compared to last year, aggravated the number of air travelers. But the omicron variant, which now accounts for more than 70% of new coronavirus cases in the United States, has also caused problems on cruise ships. According to the Washington Post, this was the reason why ships were denied entry into Caribbean ports.
In a statement, Carnival Cruises confirmed that it has “isolated a small number of people aboard after testing positive for Covid-19”.
The CDC, the leading public health agency in the United States, says that more than 60 cruises are being investigated by authorities after detecting cases of Covid-19 on board.
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