Palm Springs airport seeing far more cancellations than usual as bad weather, omicron linger – Yahoo News

An Alaskan Airways flight descends into Palm Springs Worldwide realtor Palm Springs , November 24, 2020.

Palm Springs Worldwide Airport is seeing A lot extra flight cancellations than is typical, an airport spokesperson said, as rising case counts of COVID-19 and winter storms roil the nation.

By way of the busy journey journey interval extending from Dec. 23 to Dec. 31, the airport noticed 52 canceled flights, Based mostly on Daniel Meier, PSP deputy director of aviation, advertising and air service.

That was An monumental enhance from the Dec. 1 to 22 interval, when simply two flights have been canceled. The complete month of November had one cancellation whereas the month of October had eight, which Meier said was The outcomes of a SkyWest Airways IT outage that occurred late in that month.

That outage resulted Inside the cancellation of about 1,300 flights nationwide on Oct. 24 and 25 — about 25% of the airline’s complete schedule for these days — Based mostly on the airline information internet website AirlineGeeks. September, meanwhereas, noticed no flight cancellations at PSP.

That low Quantity of cancellations is typical for the airport, Meier said.

“On most days We now Have not any cancellations In any respect,” he said final week.

On Tuesday, seven flights — about 7% of the airport’s schedule — had been canceled as of 9:15 a.m., Based mostly on the airline knowledgebase FlightAware. That was down from 20 flights on Photo voltaicday and 12 on Monday.

Three flights had been canceled for Wednesday and none for Thursday, by no meansthemuch less, many cancellations come On the final minute.

Greater than 15,000 flights have been canceled nationwide between Christmas Eve and New Yr’s Day, Based mostly on USA Right now, and The drawback seems to have solely gotten worse in current days. This previous weekend was the worst two-day stretch of cancellations for airlines of The journey journey season with extra than 5,400 flights canceled.

COVID-19 again on the rise

The rise in cancellations starting Dec. 23 coincides with the enhance in COVID-19 circumstances nationwide that started in mid-December and continues to worsen.

A number of airlines have said A pair of of the cancellations are The outcomes of staff shortages as extra of their staff look at constructive for COVID-19 or Want to Look after Relations Who’ve.

Story continues

Initially of December, the nationwide seven-day common For mannequin spanking new COVID-19 circumstances was 86,977, Based mostly on CDC knowledge. On Dec. 18, it was 131,966. The seven-day common stored growing Daily since, reverying 316,277 on Dec. 29, the final day for which a seven-day common is presently out there.

Specialists say the rise in circumstances has resulted from The mannequin new omicron variant of COVID-19, which the CDC reveals now accounts for extra than 90% of COVID-19 circumstances Inside the US. The CDC says the omicron variant spreads extra simply than The distinctive COVID-19 variant virus. However, The Ny Occasions has reported that a number of research advocate that omicron circumstances Are typically much less extreme.

Delta’s Authorities Vice chairman and Chief of Operations John Laughter on Dec. 27 referred to as the state of affairs “An best storm That options relentmuch less climate methods coupled with the omicron variant surge.”

The Desert Photo voltaic reported final week that A lot of the airport’s current cancellations had been for flights departing for or arriving from the Pacific Northwest, which expert A critical snow storm final weekend.

However, the cancellations at PSP Inside The primary week of The mannequin new year Appear to be considerably extra widespread whereas nonethemuch less affecting some locations Far extra than completely differents, notably the Pacific Northwest and the Bay Space.

On Monday, three flights to and from San Francisco have been canceled whereas two apiece have been cancelled for San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver, Canada, and Edmonton, Canada. A flight to JFK Airport in Ny was furtherly canceled.

On Tuesday, 4 flights to and from Seattle have been canceled Collectively with two Vancouver flights and one to San Francisco. The locations impacted by cancellations for Wednesday are Phoenix (two cancellations) and Portland, Oregon.

Adjust toing The primary submit-Christmas snow storm, the Seattle area has seen moist climate And funky however warming temperatures, each of That are anticipated to final through the week.

Alaska Airways, which Is predicated in Seattle and functions flights between that metropolis and Palm Springs, launched A press launch on Dec. 29 saying that it had “proactively thinned Seattle departures by about 20% To permit for The further time it takes to deice plane, a requirement all through winter climate.”

The airline warned that It Will not Be In a place to re-accommodate most passengers for A minimal of three days and inspired flyers with non-important journey scheduled earlier than Jan. 2 To imagine about altering their journey to a later date using its versatile journey coverage.

That coverage permits flyers To vary any ticket for any flight through Jan. 16 To A particular flight Contained in the subsequent month And by no means using a change payment.

Alaska, WestJet, Jet Blue Delta, SkyWest and Mesa Airways (the latter two function flights beneath completely different airlines’ mannequining) have all canceled A minimal Of 1 flight departing to or arriving from PSP since Photo voltaicday. However, Alaska and SkyWest had In all probability the most PSP cancellations all through that interval with 5 every.

Meier said he Did not know have particulars on why particular flights had been canceled however said the current snow storm Inside the northwest “triggered A lot of them.”

Paul Albani-Burgio covers breaking information and The metropolis of Palm Springs. Adjust to him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and via e-mail at [email protected].

This textual content material initially appeared on Palm Springs Desert Photo voltaic: Since Christmas, Palm Springs’ airport has been seeing A lot of cancellations