Holiday flights canceled at LAX, other airports due to COVID-19 issues

More flights were canceled at Southland airports and around the world Sunday, as a wave of cancellations over the holiday weekend driven by the coronavirus pandemic continued to inconvenience travelers.

As of 3:15 p.m., the tracking site FlightAware.com listed 110 cancellations Sunday at LAX, 1,187 involving flights into or out of the United States, and 2,844 total cancellations around the world.

Twenty-five cancellations were listed Sunday at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, eight at Hollywood Burbank Airport and six at Long Beach Airport.

There were 96 cancellations at LAX on Christmas Day, according to Flight Aware — part of 997 total cancellations involving U.S. flights, and 2,858 worldwide.

On Friday, 2,380 flights were canceled worldwide — 690 involving U.S. flights and 86 at LAX.

The scrapped flights were largely blamed on airline staffing shortages caused by the latest surge in coronavirus cases, fueled by the Omicron variant. Weather issues were also causing some of the cancellations.

After acknowledging the cancellations Friday, LAX did not comment on Saturday or Sunday’s cancellations, but did tweet Sunday morning that “Today is expected to be another peak travel day at #LAX with up to 200,000 passengers using the airport! Make sure to arrive early for your flight, pre-book parking at http://parking.flylax.com, and please wear your mask – wishing everyone #HealthyHolidays #LAXTravelSafely.”

The airport was dealing with a separate, storm-related electrical issue affecting Terminal 5, and said passengers using American Airlines, JetBlue or Spirit would be directed to use security checkpoints and baggage claims in Terminals 4 and 6.

“Cancellations and delays are possible, so it will be important to check your flight status today if flying through Terminal 5. Thank you for your patience,” LAX tweeted Sunday morning.