Christmas in Corona: More than seven thousand flights canceled

According to airline data, weather and the coronavirus outbreak resulted in more than 7,000 flight cancellations over the Christmas holiday, and tens of thousands of passengers were delayed. Airlines in the United States and China were hit the hardest.

According to the tracking website Flightaware, more than 2,000 flights worldwide were canceled on Sunday alone, 570 of which were to or from the United States. Another 4,000 flights were delayed.

According to US airlines, the reason for most flight cancellations or delays was due to airline employees being infected with the coronavirus or being in quarantine. Weather warnings and adverse weather conditions were also cited as other reasons for flight cancellations.

The website said 2,400 flights were canceled on Friday and 2,800 on Saturday. At the same time, 19,500 flights were delayed. Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines faced the most changes to their flight schedules. United alone was forced to cancel about 450 flights on Friday and Saturday, about 10 percent of its scheduled flights. Delta also canceled at least 300 flights on Saturday and 100 flights on Sunday.

China Eastern and China Air have suffered the most losses in China, according to FlightAware data. China Eastern canceled a fifth of its scheduled flights on Friday and Saturday.

Source: DW