Go anywhere in the world and people will tell you how excited they get on just hearing about the last week of December. There are no surprises about the last week of December being considered as the Holiday period, where people travel to their favourite destinations to celebrate Christmas and then the New Year.
However, the situation has changed drastically in the last few years since the arrival of Covid-19. The pandemic halted everything; from confining people to the fours walls of their houses to making it almost impossible to go on a vacation.
The things though seemed to be getting back to normal after the successful arrival of vaccines. People thought now they could again live the life they desire. But then, Covid seems to have vowed to disrupt people’s lives. While the people were still fighting the scars of Covid, a new variant– Omicron– landed to add to the trouble.
The rapidly growing virus has, among many other complications, halted the Christmas Holidays. Thousands of travellers received a shock in the last few days as their flights were cancelled at the last minute due to the rising number of Omicron cases worldwide.
The New York Times reported that as of Friday morning, at least 2000 flights were cancelled globally. Governments around the world are trying to restrict large gatherings, fearing the spread of Omicron.
From the United States to Australia, flights are being cancelled almost everywhere. It has irked the travellers as well. Eager to celebrate this Holiday period, people showed their anger against flight operators for the cancellation of tickets.
The cancellation of flights has also to do with the number of airline crew members turning Covid positive.
“A large number of our frontline team members are being required to test and isolate as close contacts given the increasing number of cases in the general community,” a representative for Jetstar Airways said by email as reported by NYT on Friday. “As a result, we have had to make some late adjustments to our schedule.”