Holiday travel is generally a stressful enterprise, but a rapid surge in cases of COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant have caused hundreds of flight cancellations, adding another layer of difficulty to the proceedings.
Several major airlines, including Delta, United, and Alaska dealing with a shortage of workers. Many of them now in quarantine after testing positive for COVID.
Sunday morning saw more of the same at O’Hare, with 36 cancellations reported as of 9 a.m. Just two flights had been canceled at Midway, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. “We’re going straight to New Delhi, India from here,” said Abdurrahman Patel from Chicago’s Albany Park. “It’s going to be a 14-hour flight, luckily for us, there were no problems, no nothing—everything went smooth and clear.”
For Arlington Heights resident Lee Erbach and his two sons, he’s hoping they can get to their destination safely and on time.
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