United Joins Wave of Canceled Flights After 3,000 Workers Test Positive for Covid-19

Continued flight cancellations and rising numbers of employees testing optimistic for Covid-19 are making an already dire state of affairs worse for the U.S. airline business. Now, following hundreds of missed flights and employee shortages, some airways like United are opting to preemptively scale back their schedules.

United CEO Scott Kirby acknowledged the scheduling pivot, in addition to the surge of cancellations and sick employees, in a letter posted on LinkedIn Tuesday. Kirby claimed 3,000 United employees have examined optimistic for Covid-19 and that as a lot as a 3rd of the corporate’s Newark, New Jersey workforce known as out sick in a single day. Those 3,000 employees make up about 4% of United’s whole workforce, according to CNBC.

The CEO hopes the brand new efforts to cut back United’s schedule will doubtlessly enable the corporate to shore up what restricted employees and assets are presently obtainable. United isn’t alone both. JetBlue Airlines not too long ago introduced it could preemptively cancel 1,280 flights for the primary half of January whereas Alaska Airlines plans to chop about 10% of its January flights. All instructed, round 5,000 flights have been canceled throughout U.S. airways over the previous weekend based on FlightAware information noted in The New York Times.

It’s not all unhealthy information although. Kirby additionally credited United’s contentious Covid-19 vaccine mandate for stopping any of its employees from dying or being hospitalized from the virus to date. The overwhelming majority of United’s workforce is presently vaccinated, although about 2,000 workers have reportedly utilized for medical or non secular exemptions.

“Since our vaccine policy went into effect, the hospitalization rate among our employees has been 100x lower than the general population in the U.S,” Kirby mentioned. “Prior to our vaccine requirement, tragically, more than one United employee on average *per week* was dying from COVID. But we’ve now gone eight straight weeks with zero COVID-related deaths among our vaccinated employees—based on United’s prior experience and the nationwide data related to COVID fatalities among the unvaccinated, that means there are approximately 8-10 United employees who are alive today because of our vaccine requirement.”

As of writing, most main U.S. airways now require their workers to be vaccinated in opposition to Covid-19 although there are some notable exceptions. Delta, for instance, nonetheless doesn’t require worker vaccinations although the corporate’s CEO has beforehand claimed 90% of its workers have been vaccinated no matter a mandate. Southwest Airlines has additionally but to require vaccinations for workers.

The mass cancellations and employee callouts construct on what’s been a disastrous final month for the airline business. Thousands of vacationers and airline employees had their lives uprooted over the vacations as virus-related disruptions and climate occasions led to almost 4,000 flights canceled on Christmas Eve and Christmas day alone. Since then, airways have frequently canceled hundreds of flights day by day. The CDC, in the course of the midst of this wave of cancellations, formally shortened its really helpful isolation and quarantine interval for asymptomatic or recovering people who had examined optimistic for Covid-19 from 10 to 5 days.

Though it’s troublesome to think about, it’s attainable the state of affairs may develop even worse because the omicron variant spreads to extra areas and is rapidly turning into accounting for the overwhelming majority of Covid-19 circumstances. In addition to trimming upcoming schedules, some airways like United and Southwest try to fight the glut of sick employees by providing double (and even triple) pay for pilots to tackle extra journeys.