Atlanta airport seeing few flight cancelations as holiday travel issues persist nationwide
ATLANTA - Quarantined crew members left travelers stranded over the holiday weekend, and those flight cancelations continued on Monday.
Airlines such as Delta recommend that travelers check their flight statuses before heading to the airport to plan for unexpected cancelations.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, travelers had to re-book flights with different airlines. Some were stuck in the airport alone.
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More than 1,000 flights were canceled on Sunday because of the omicron variant surge, forcing airline crew members to call out.
United, Delta, JetBlue and American Airlines were some of the carriers affected.
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More than 500 flights across the U.S. were canceled on Monday morning. Weather also impacted the timeliness of flights.
The impact was less at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where about 15 of arrivals and departures were canceled, according to Flight Aware.
Are you guaranteed a refund for a canceled flight?
U.S. Department of Transportation regulations guarantee a refund to passengers if the airline canceled a flight, regardless of the reason.
However, re-booking same-day flights may be more expensive, depending on the fares of the original flight.
Omicron to blame for flight cancelations
Recent mass flight cancelations come as coronavirus cases, driven by the new omicron variant, further squeeze staffing at hospitals, police departments, supermarkets and other critical operations struggling to maintain a full contingent of front-line workers.
Omicron accounted for 73% of new infections last week, federal health officials said.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian was among those who have called on the Biden administration to take similar steps or risk further disruptions in air travel.
Delta also released a statement Friday:
"Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources -- including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying -- before canceling around 135 flights for Friday. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans. Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight. Customers are encouraged to check delta.com or the Fly Delta app for updates related to their specific flight."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.