United Airlines is accused of canceling 120 Christmas Eve flights via Omicron because of customers’ ‘lack of compassion’

UNITED airline is canceling about 120 flights over Christmas Eve, citing the impact of Covid-19 on their employees.

Flight cancellations related to the impact of the Omicron variant on flight crews and other workers, and customer dissatisfaction.

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United confirmed the cancellation in a statement to The Sun on Thursday night.

“The nationwide spike in Omicron incidents this week has had a direct impact on our fleet and the people who run our operations.

As a result, we regret having had to cancel some flights and are informing affected customers in advance of their arrival at the airport. We’re sorry for the disruption and are working hard to re-register as many people as possible and get them on the road for the holidays.”

The statement added that about 120 flights were canceled on Christmas Eve.

This comes as air travel across the US is expected to increase to near pre-pandemic levels over the holidays.

United CEO Scott Kirby told Good Morning America on Monday that he expected 420,000 customers a day to travel on United flights over the next two weeks.

AAA’s holiday travel forecast, released last week, predicts a total of 6.4 million people will travel by air between December 23 and January 2.

This is an increase of 184% over the same period in 2020.

Users took to social media to share their disdain for delayed or canceled flights.

“@United ‘Sorry for the inconvenience’ […] do nothing for a woman who cannot see her dying mother. No organization and complete lack of compassion created [United Airlines] a joke,” a user wrote.

“[Asked] @united airline flight attendant for advice because delay would cause me to miss my flight and he said ‘What do you want me to do about that? Good luck ‘#MerryChristmas,’ other people talk.

A total of 109.5 million people will travel during the holidays, according to AAA projections, despite growing concern about the new Covid variant.

About 100.1 million people are expected to travel by car, while around 2.9 million are expected to use other modes such as trains or buses.

This is up 33.9% from 2020, but still 8.2% lower than the pre-pandemic level of 119.3 million tourists in 2019.