COVID-19 variant disrupts holiday travel but not shopping

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The latest COVID-19 variant is upending holiday plans for tens of thousands of travelers — but it didn’t do much damage to holiday shopping.

Airlines canceled hundreds more flights Sunday, citing staffing problems tied to COVID-19, as the nation's travel woes extended beyond Christmas, with no clear indication when normal schedules would resume.

But shoppers shrugged off the omicron variant, and holiday sales rose at the fastest pace in 17 years, according to one spending measure.

Omicron is likely to slow the economy’s unexpectedly strong rebound from last year’s coronavirus recession by disrupting travel and discouraging some consumers from venturing out. The variant could also add more heat to already simmering inflation by forcing shutdowns at factories and ports, delaying shipments and driving up prices.

“A full reopening of the U.S. economy will be delayed yet again,’’ said Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, a trade group of financial firms.

But it’s not yet clear how deep the hurt will go or how long it will last.

For now, the variant is playing havoc with travel. More than 700 flights entering, leaving or flying within the U.S. were called off, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. That figure was down from nearly 1,000 on Saturday. More than 50 flights were already canceled for Monday.

Delta, United, JetBlue and American have blamed omicron for staffing shortages that forced cancellations.

“This was unexpected,” United spokesperson Maddie King said of the variant's effect on staffing.

Globally, airlines scrapped about 2,200 flights as of Sunday morning, down from more than 2,800 cancellations the day before, FlightAware’s data showed....