International Business: Americans go ahead with holiday plans despite Omicron wave – Gulf Digital News

International Business: Americans go ahead with holiday plans despite Omicron wave – Gulf Digital News

NEW YORK: US airlines cancelled hundreds of flights on Christmas Eve amid a surge in Covid-19 infections driven by the Omicron variant, but millions of Americans carried on with travel plans through a second pandemic-clouded holiday season.

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines both cancelled dozens of Christmas Eve flights because of staff shortages amid the surge in infections.

Delta cancelled 138 flights and United Airlines cancelled 170 flights, data from the website FlightAware showed. More than 2,000 flights globally were scrapped, with 448 cancellations within, into, or out of the US.

But most flights went ahead, as many Americans put aside their concerns over infection and plowed ahead with their plans.

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 has dashed their hopes to catch a performance of “Hamilton” or visit some museums.

“Hamilton” was one of a dozen Broadway shows forced to cancel shows this week as cast and crew members tested positive for Covid-19. Museums were scratched from the family’s itinerary because many now require proof of vaccination and the two younger children are ineligible for the shot.

Instead, Jimenez, 33, said his brood