United, Delta cancel flights just before Christmas Eve

(CNN) — At slightest 2 large airlines successful the United States person canceled flights conscionable earlier Christmas Eve.

On Thursday, United Airlines said it had to “cancel immoderate flights” due to the fact that of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

“The nationwide spike successful Omicron cases this week has had a nonstop interaction connected our formation crews and the radical who tally our operation,” said a United memo obtained by CNN.

United has canceled much than 100 Friday flights, according to formation tracking site FlightAware.

United said it is “notifying impacted customers successful beforehand of them coming to the airport,” according to a institution statement. “We’re atrocious for the disruption and are moving hard to rebook arsenic galore radical arsenic imaginable and get them connected their mode for the holidays.”

Later Thursday night, Delta Air Lines besides canceled flights. The hose canceled 93 Christmas Eve flights, according to FlightAware. That’s 4% of its full schedule.

Delta said the cancellations are owed to aggregate issues including the Omicron variant.

“We apologize to our customers for the hold successful their vacation question plans,” Delta said successful a statement. “Delta radical are moving hard to get them to wherever they request to beryllium arsenic rapidly and arsenic safely arsenic imaginable connected the adjacent disposable flight.”