NORFOLK, Va. - Airlines across the country canceled more than 1,500 flights this Christmas weekend due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
"It’s been a wonderful Christmas, visiting family here in Virginia Beach," John Stallford said, a tourist visiting family.
For the Stallford family, traveling from Los Angeles has been a pleasant trip but they’re hoping flight cancellations don’t impact their travels back home to California.
"We’re keeping our fingers crossed. Two flights tonight through Chicago then LA. Fingers crossed that it will go as planned," Stallford said.
Kevin Fencen is visiting family from New York City. He says his Christmas weekend has been scaled back.
"My Christmas was fantastic. Got to see the family, we didn’t really go anywhere because of the COVID strain," Fencen said.
Fencen says he hasn’t had any flight cancellations during his trip.
"But I’ve been checking my phone almost religiously looking to see if anything happened. I have a few backup plans to take Amtrak just in case," Fencen said.
Delta, United, Jet Blue, and American Airlines have pointed to staff sick with COVID-19 due to the rising Omicron variant.
"We’ve been flying Southwest and they’ve been great so far, not even delayed," Patrick Danahall said, a traveler.
"We did not. Luckily Southwest stayed pretty stable so we were very lucky," another traveler said.
The rise in cases with the Omicron variant is impacting many travelers' plans.
"His family is in Argentina so we’re not sure if that’s going to happen. We were supposed to go in March for a wedding," one traveler said.
Other travelers are getting tested more frequently.
"I’m supposed to go to Seattle this upcoming week but I got a test scheduled for tomorrow morning. If I test positive, won’t be going anywhere and will have to delay that one," Fencen said.
