Alaska Airlines Trims January Flight Schedule Due to COVID, Winter Weather

Alaska Airlines announced Thursday it would reduce its flight schedule by around 10 percent for the remainder of January to offset the impact of coronavirus-related work shortages and winter weather delays.

According to The Associated Press, Alaska Airlines representatives said the carrier is dealing with an “unprecedented” number of employees calling in sick as the United States battles the Omicron coronavirus variant.

“As we have entered 2022, the continued impacts of omicron have been disruptive in all our lives and unprecedented employee sick calls have impacted our ability to operate our airline reliably,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement.

“We are deeply grateful for how our incredible employees have pulled together to take care of our guests and each other, operate safely and make the best of a very difficult situation,” the carrier continued. “To our guests, we apologize for the considerable inconvenience and are working hard to return to the level of service they know and expect from us.”

On Friday, 1,162 flights were delayed within, into or out of the United States and another 2,362 were canceled, according to FlightAware.com. Over 10,000 flights worldwide were delayed or canceled as of 10 a.m. ET.

Alaska Airlines accounted for over 130 of Friday’s flight cancellations.

Last week, JetBlue revealed it would scrap approximately 1,280 flights or nearly 10 percent of its flight schedule through January 13 as COVID-19 continues to impact its pilots and flight attendants.

“We’re at our best when we are safe, reliable and caring. And right now, we need to build more reliability back into our operation as we deal with the impacts of omicron and during a time when guests generally fly less,” an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said.