United and Delta cancel more than 200 Christmas eve flights

Over 200 flights scheduled for Christmas Eve have been canceled by United Airlines and Delta over concerns of the new omicron variant.

"We’re seeing about 120 cancellations planned for Friday," a spokesperson for United said on Thursday.

“The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation,” United said in a statement. “As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport. We’re sorry for the disruption and are working hard to rebook as many people as possible and get them on their way for the holidays.”

Delta also canceled around 90 Christmas Eve flights, the airline said on Thursday.

"Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources — including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying — before canceling around 90 flights for Friday," Delta told The Hill.

"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," said Delta.