Omicron variant disrupts US holiday travel, but shoppers were undaunted

The COVID-19 Omicron variant is upending holiday plans for tens of thousands of American travelers with US airlines canceling over 700 more flights Sunday, but holiday sales rose at the fastest pace in 17 years, according to one spending measure.

Flight-tracking website FlightAware noted that Sunday’s cancelation was down from nearly 1,000 on Saturday.

So far, over 50 flights for Monday were already canceled.

According to US airlines Delta, United, and JetBlue, the Omicron variant caused staffing shortages that forced cancellations.

On Sunday, JetBlue canceled 10 percent of its flights, while Delta canceled 5 percent, and United canceled 4 percent. The three airlines canceled over 10 percent of their flights on Saturday.

Globally, there were about 2,200 flights that were scrapped as of Sunday morning, down from over 2,800 cancellations the day before, FlightAware’s data showed.

However, Mastercard Spending Pulse, which tracks all payments from cash to debit cards, reported Sunday that sales jumped 8.5 percent from a year earlier, posting the biggest annual gain in 17 years.

The results covered sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24 and were fueled by purchases of clothing and jewelry. Holiday sales are 10.7 percent higher than the pre-pandemic 2019 holiday period.