Christmas travel chaos as airlines cancel more than 4,500 flights

Passengers travelling over the Christmas holiday have been hit with disruption worldwide after airline companies cancelled more than 4,500 flights, according to a flight tracking website.

A surge of cancellations on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day came as the rapidly spreading Omicron coronavirus variant meant carriers were unable to staff their flights.

The website of the flight tracking firm FlightAware showed that 2,175 flights around the world had been scrapped on Christmas Eve, a typically heavy day for travel. Around a quarter of those were in the US. Another 1,779 flights were scrapped worldwide on Christmas Day, along with 402 more that had been scheduled for Sunday.

The bulk of the cancellations came from five firms, with China Eastern cancelling 474 journeys, while Air China scrapped 188. United cancelled 177 flights, Air India 160 and Delta called off 150.

In response to the pre-holiday chaos, airlines have called for the relaxation of quarantine rules for vaccinated staff.

Despite the uncertainties and grim news around the world, millions of Americans carried on with travel plans through a second pandemic-clouded holiday season.

Moses Jimenez, an accountant from Long Beach, Mississippi, flew to New York with his wife and three children, even though the latest torrent of coronavirus cases dashed their hopes of catching a Broadway performance of Hamilton or visit some museums.