Weather, not Omicron, taking the biggest bite out of Canadian airline schedules

Canadian air travellers are experiencing an uptick in flight cancellations this holiday season, but airlines say weather is a bigger factor than COVID-19. According to airline data company Cirium, Canada's largest airlines canceled hundreds of flights between Dec. 22 and Dec. 26 of this year. Flair Airlines cancelled 9% of its scheduled flights during the period while WestJet cancelled 7% of its flights. Air Canada cancelled 4% of its scheduled flights during the period. The proportion of cancelled flights was significantly higher than earlier in December, when the cancellation rate for major carriers hovered around 1-2%, and also higher than the same period during 2019's pre-pandemic holiday season. South of the border, US airlines have reported cancelling significant numbers of flights in the past week because of staff shortages tied to the Omicron variant. Both Delta and United said the nationwide spike in cases this week has impacted flight crews and left carriers short-staffed. But in Canada, airlines say weather has caused more holiday travel disruptions than COVID-19 so far this year. "The last few days were some of our busiest since pre-pandemic, carrying nearly 50,000 guests a day on more than 500 flights at peak," said WestJet spokeswoman Morgan Bell in an email. Environment Canada says all of Alberta and most of British Columbia and Saskatchewan, along with parts of Manitoba and Ontario are under extreme cold weather warnings. Air Canada, which cancelled 171 flights from Dec. 22 to Dec. 26, said adverse winter weather was the major factor. "We have the crews to operate our schedule so we have not been impacted as some other carriers have been by COVID-19," a statement from the airline said.<br/>