Alaska Airlines Cuts Down On Flights For Rest Of January As Airlines Continue To Scramble

On Thursday, Alaska Airlines announced it will be cutting down its flight schedule by around 10% for the remainder of the month of January as it addresses ongoing staffing and weather issues.

ABC News reported:

Alaska’s announcement came on a day in which more than 2,100 U.S. flights were canceled by early evening on the East Coast, according to FlightAware. The tracking service said that equaled about 8% of the day’s scheduled flights, and it was the 12th straight day of 1,000-plus cancellations, which airlines blamed on the virus surge and winter weather.

Worldwide, airlines had canceled about 4,700 flights.

By early in the evening, Southwest had canceled around 650 flights, which is 21% of its Thursday schedule. A spokesperson for the airline reportedly said it was addressing issues caused by very cold weather at multiple airports and a large number of employees calling out sick because they either have COVID-19 or are quarantining because they were a close contact of somebody who had COVID-19.

“Alaska had scrubbed about 125, or 17% of its flights,” ABC noted. – READ MORE