Why so many airlines are grounding flights
2022 likely will be just as unpredictable for airlines
The forces that have scrambled thousands of flights since Christmas Eve could ease this month, but that’s cold comfort to millions of flyers with trips still in the books.
And if 2021 taught us anything, 2022 will likely be just as unpredictable.
Here’s a look at what has mucked up flights for thousands of people this holiday season and what could happen over the next few weeks.
What happened?
Airlines weren’t spared from the spread of the coronavirus’ omicron variant, which knocked out flight crews at airlines that had already reduced the size of their workforces following the collapse of air travel in 2020.
The wave of omicron infections arrived at the same time crowds began to pack airports for holiday travel. Then the Pacific Northwest and other areas were slammed with extreme cold and heavy snowstorms.
The convergence of all three forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights starting on Christmas Eve.
Some airlines have also recognized that the confluence of the holiday rush, omicron and bad weather make it impossible to keep their current schedules.
When might things improve?
U.S. health officials last week halved guidance to five days of quarantine for asymptomatic Americans who catch the virus. Airline industry experts say that will alleviate staffing issues, but the flight attendants unions say they’re wary of the change and its effect on worker health. Cases continue to rise. And that isn’t the only problem.
It could take up to a week after the worst of the crush for airlines to fully recover from lingering bad weather, said Jim Hetzel, an expert on airline operations at aviations data provider Cirium.
Getting past the holidays will help. January and February are the year’s slowest travel months after the New Year’s rush, said Willis Orlando, senior flight expert at Scott’s Cheap Flights.
“There should be a lot more room for airline to cut routes, reassign pilots and have staff in reserve,” he said.
Some airlines have also recognized that the confluence of the holiday rush, omicron and bad weather make it impossible to keep their current schedules.
Jetblue said Wednesday that it was reducing its schedule through midjanuary in hopes of giving customers more time to make alternate plans. Crew members are volunteering to work extra hours, spokesperson Derek Dombrowski said, and managers are pitching in where they’re trained to do so.
Were these cancellations unusual?
Inclement weather is a sporadic but constant threat to travel in winter. A rebound in travel in 2021, when airlines didn’t have enough staff to keep up with demand, led to heavy cancellations and delays earlier in the year.
Southwest Airlines struggled in summer and fall with delays and cancellations, which it blamed on computer problems, staffing shortages and bad weather. American canceled more than 1,000 flights over Halloween
the first two weeks of the new year. The virus, León said, continues “to be a brutal, relentless and ruthless virus that rears its ugly head at inopportune times.”
Long after the widespread closures in the pandemic’s early days, school and elected leaders say they are using the lessons and tools of the past two years to try to navigate the latest surge without long-term shutdowns, which had woeful effects on learning and students’ well-being.
Still, pressure from parents and teachers unions has added to the urgency surrounding safety measures as the omicron-fueled surge sends up caseloads and puts children in the hospital in close to record numbers.
“They say kids do well (if infected), but who’s to say my kid is not going to be that one,” said Rebecca Caldwell, who is considering petitioning her Charleston, Illinois, district for a remote option that would let her keep her four sons, ages 17, 10, 7 and 5, home through the winter.
The first half of the school year brought Caldwell’s family three scares from exposures. One, from a family member, kept the whole family in quarantine for 10 days. Her 17-year-old and 10-year-old saw classmates infected,
and each underwent a nerve-wracking series of COVID-19 tests as part of a more recent “test-to-stay” policy.
“It’s really scary because you worry about the domino effect, too,” said Caldwell, whose own health issues led her to leave her restaurant job more than a year ago to lessen her risk.
In the nation’s largest school system, New York City, 2 million at-home test kits provided by the state will be used to increase testing following the break, officials announced. Students whose classmates test positive can keep coming to school as long as their at-home tests are negative and they don’t have symptoms.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents New York City educators, questioned whether the new testing initiatives will be available in every school by the time schools reopen Monday.
“We are moving closer to a safe reopening of school next week. But we are not there yet,” he said last week.
In Chicago, the nation’s third-largest school district, officials announced the purchase of 100,000 laptops over the holidays in case they are needed for remote learning in January, though district leaders said they hope to avoid a system-wide closure. The Chicago Teachers Union has proposed pausing in-person learning unless new safety measures are introduced, including negative COVID tests for students.
Los Angeles health officials last week announced tightened testing and masking rules for all employees and students when LA County public and private schools return to campuses on Monday. Concerned by a spike of the omicron variant, the county health department mandated that teachers must wear medical-grade masks in class and students and staff must wear masks outdoors in crowded spaces. Schools will have two weeks to comply.
To help keep as many students in school as possible, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona endorsed test-to-stay in December as an alternative to the previously recommended 10-day quarantines. Hundreds of schools have adopted test-to-stay policies for students who have had contact with an infected classmate.
“The goal remains to keep all schools open for in-person learning five days a week throughout the 2021-22 school year and beyond,” Cardona said in a message to schools marking the halfway point of the academic year. He said 99% of schools were open in-person in December, compared with 46% last January.
Out of more than 13,000 school districts nationwide, relatively few have announced plans to start remotely after winter break.
Like Newark, those districts generally plan to resume in-person instruction within a couple weeks. They include Cleveland; Prince George’s County, Maryland; Mount Vernon, New York;
Taos, New Mexico; Chester County, South Carolina; and several New Jersey school systems.
Ronald Taylor, superintendent of the South Orange-maplewood School District in New Jersey, said a spike in cases and subsequent quarantining heading into the break had disrupted operations by forcing consolidation of classes where there weren’t enough staff. He said the district would be remote the first week back.
“Like many other school districts, we have seen a consistent trend, after each of our school breaks, both Thanksgiving and our fall break in early November, there has been a sharp increase in our student/staff population of COVID cases,” he said.
Masks also will make a return in some districts after break, including Hopkinton High School, the first Massachusetts public school to lift the mandate, in October. It was reinstated just before break.
Some school systems are moving toward requiring vaccinations for students, but not anytime soon. In the Los Angeles school district, which was among the first to announce mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for students, a Jan. 10 deadline for students 12 and older was postponed until this fall. Officials said the earlier date would have barred about 27,000 unvaccinated students from campuses.