Flights Cancelled Due To Ómicron Infections

The presence of the Ómicron variant of covid-19 is eminent and is already causing havoc at airports, as now in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, which have had to cancel 4 flights yesterday in Puerto Vallarta and 8 in Guadalajara. GAP informed that the airlines reporting a lack of personnel to continue with scheduled operations are Aeromexico, Alaska Airlines and WestJet, in the case of Puerto Vallarta; and Aeromexico, Viva Aerobus and Alaska Airlines; in the case of Guadalajara. Other cancellations were reported by Jose Juarez, spokesman for the Mexican Airline Pilots Union Association (ASPA), who informed that in the first six days of the year, 22 other flights have been cancelled in the country due to personnel infected by the coronavirus, but warned that this is a "domino effect because for each positive pilot, all crew members with whom he/she had contact are isolated".

Of the 1,900 members of this union, 61 have been infected in less than a week. Another union, the flight attendants union, indicated in a press release yesterday that 140 of its members are unable to fly for the same reason and 65 more are suspended for lack of valid documentation, which represents a 10% impact on the workforce. In Mexico, data from Flightware Flight Tracking Service, Aeromexico has had more than a hundred flights cancelled between yesterday and today, (14% on Thursday and 19% until noon today), Volaris had more than a hundred delayed and nine cancelled until noon.