EGLIN AFB — Air vacationers throughout the nation skilled vital turbulence this holiday weekend.
Severe climate and COVID-19-related staffing points reportedly contributed to the cancellation of greater than 2,600 flights Sunday and Monday.
Luckily, native flights have remained largely on the right track, in accordance with Okaloosa County Airports Director Tracy Stage.
“There has been vital disruption throughout the trade over the vacations, nonetheless, little or no influence on the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport,” Stage mentioned in an electronic mail Monday. “Since Christmas Eve to as we speak, now we have solely had 5 flight cancellations and a lot of delays.”
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Other elements of the nation have been much less lucky, notably northern states the place many flights fell sufferer to brutal winter climate.
SkyWest had the best variety of cancellations for any U.S. service Monday. In a press release to USA TODAY, the Utah-based airline attributed its almost 300 cancellations to climate situations at a number of hubs and “elevated COVID instances and quarantines amongst crewmembers.”
“Weather challenges” had been additionally blamed for the almost 900 delays for Southwest Airlines on Monday, essentially the most for any airline, USA TODAY reported.
Delta Air Lines’ vice chairman and Chief of Operations John Laughter known as the state of affairs “an ideal storm that features relentless climate methods coupled with the omicron variant surge.” He mentioned cancellations are all the time a final resort.
Delta, United Airlines and JetBlue had all mentioned Friday that the omicron variant was inflicting staffing issues resulting in flight cancellations, in accordance with the Associated Press.
All advised, greater than 1,500 flights inside, into or out of the U.S. had been canceled Sunday and over 6,000 had been delayed, the monitoring web site FlightConscious reported. As of mid-afternoon Monday, a further 4,200 flights had been delayed and 1,100 extra had been canceled.
But by way of native air journey, Stage mentioned Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport has been largely unaffected by the turmoil.
“We are seeing packed flights, seamless journey with little to no waits,” he mentioned. “Good climate has additionally helped.”
USA TODAY reporters Celina Tebor, John Bacon and Eve Chen contributed to this report.
https://www.nwfdailynews.com/story/enterprise/journey/2021/12/28/flight-delays-and-cancellations-skirt-destin-fort-walton-beach-airport/9027194002/
