Gabriella Borter and Aishwarya Nair

(Reuters) – Nearly 1000 flights were canceled by U.S. airlines on Monday, following thousands of flight cancellations over Christmas. These flights had been grounded due to staff shortages and poor weather.

Monday’s airline woes ended a miserable holiday weekend for thousands who were stuck in airports or waiting hours in long lines at customer service to rebook flights. Sometimes, they even waited for days.

Airlines have had to cancel flight cancellations due to rapidly rising COVID-19 infection from Omicron variant.

A Reuters count shows that the number of US COVID-19 cases per capita has increased by 55%, to 205,000 per hour over the seven-day period.

Over 80 flights were cancelled at Seattle-Tacoma Airport because of snowy weather.

Alaska Airlines representatives told one passenger via Twitter (NYSE 🙂 that they would need to wait hours to speak with someone. The representative was speaking on behalf of Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines had cancelled more than 120 flights Monday because partly of snowy conditions at Seattle.

“The wait time for your call is approximately seven hours. Alaska Airlines posted a Twitter apology in response to customer complaints.

Harley Garner (a 27-year old creative strategist from Portland) and his brother, from Seattle, were visiting their parents in Pahrump. They had intended to return home Sunday night. On Sunday afternoon, both brothers’ flights to Portland by Alaska Airlines and Seattle via Allegiant Airlines were cancelled. Both were able book later flights. Garner’s brother booked one Sunday night. Garner reserved one Monday at 6 AM.

They were then forced to cancel their second flight. The boys decided to drive, and they set out on Monday morning at 3:00 a.m. Garner was driven by his father to Bakersfield California where he planned to rent an automobile and drive to Portland and Seattle. This took about 17 hours.

Garner stated that the worst part of this travel disaster, Alaska Airlines claiming was weather-related although Portland wasn’t experiencing severe weather Monday morning, was last-minute notifications of cancellations.

“If you’re certain that the plane will not leave one destination and there’s no connector flight available, then cancel that flight.” he stated. Don’t pretend you know there is a staff shortage due to the coronavirus.

Flight tracking site flightaware.com reports that 969 US flights had been cancelled Monday afternoon.

Omicron-inducing travel misery is also being reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said Monday that they were investigating 68 cruise ship accidents after receiving reports about COVID-19 cases aboard.

Statements sent to Reuters by Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines on Monday stated that cancellations were caused by weather. Delta Airlines (NYSE) said that the Omicron variant of weather caused the cancellations. JetBlue claimed that crew shortages caused the dozens of cancellations it received Monday.

“We continue to work to mitigate the staffing issues we’re seeing,” a JetBlue spokesperson said.