JetBlue Airways: More than 1,200 flights will be canceled during the month of January

The low-cost airline JetBlue Airways has preventively removed nearly 1,300 flights from its program until mid-January 2022, its passengers having, like everywhere in the United States, suffered cancellations by the hundreds since Christmas due among other things to the lack of flight personnel, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Still displaying this December 31, 2021 at least 144 flights canceled after 175 yesterday according to Flightaware, even if some are because of the weather, the American company based at New York-JFK airport has decided to revise its program downwards. of flights, in order to allow its passengers to adjust their trips in advance rather than risking a last minute cancellation. According to CNBC, 1,280 flights were cut from December 30, 2021 to January 13, 2022, or about 10% of its daily schedule.

An internal memo from three JetBlue department heads explains that “The past week has been one of our most difficult times of operation during the pandemic. The exponential growth of Omicron cases over just a few days is at a level that no one could reasonably prepare for ”. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes told CNBC last night that these cancellations are meant to avoid last minute changes for passengers: “The worst type of cancellation, as we all know, is the cancellation that happens on the fly. ‘airport,’ he recalled.

The sick leave through air transport in the United States concerns pilots as flight attendants and flight attendants: the AFA-CW union, representing some 50,000 cabin crew, for example affirmed that some airlines were in the process of having the highest monthly positive test cases since the start of the health crisis.

JetBlue is obviously not the only one to suffer in this last week of the year, affected in addition by a terrible weather: 1406 flights were canceled Thursday in the USA according to Flightaware, reaching 17% of the JetBlue program, 14% of that Alaska Airlines, 9% at United Airlines, 8% at SkyWest or 6% at Delta Air Lines. The latter plans to cancel 200 to 300 flights per day on Saturday and Sunday. The limitation to five days of self-isolation of those infected but asymptomatic, announced Monday by the CDC, has apparently not yet had an effect on the availability of crews.

Recall that in Europe where the Omicron variant has spread at high speed, Ryanair and Lufthansa have already taken similar decisions, amounting to a third of its capacity in January for the Irish low cost and 33,000 flights between mid -January and February for the German group.