United Airlines is cutting its flight schedule to manage staffing shortages after thousands of workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
"We have about 3,000 employees who are currently positive for COVID," United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a staff memo on Tuesday. "Just as an example, in one day alone at Newark, nearly one-third of our workforce called out sick."
Kirby said the airline is working to cancel flights early when necessary, before customers arrive at the airport. On Wednesday, 120 flights were canceled, roughly 6% of United's schedule for the day, according to tracking service FlightAware.
"We're also reducing our near-term schedules to make sure we have the staffing and resources to take care of customers," he said. "As a result, we've been able to get a high percentage of our customers on other flights and close to their original arrival time."
Airlines in the U.S. have canceled thousands of flights over the past few weeks as COVID cases continue to spike across the country. Winter weather has also caused flight cancelations in some areas.
While the latest surge in coronavirus cases, fueled by the Omicron variant, has put a strain on United's operation, Kirby said the company's vaccine mandate for employees is working.
"While we have about 3,000 employees who are currently positive for COVID, zero of our vaccinated employees are currently hospitalized. Since our vaccine policy went into effect, the hospitalization rate among our employees has been 100x lower than the general population in the U.S.," Kirby said. "Prior to our vaccine requirement, tragically, more than one United employee on average *per week* was dying from COVID. But we've now gone eight straight weeks with zero COVID-related deaths among our vaccinated employees."
United was among the first companies in the U.S. to require COVID vaccinations for all of its employees, rolling out its policy in early August, according to NPR.
"While I know that some people still disagree with our policy, United is proving that requiring the vaccine is the right thing to do because it saves lives," Kirby said.
The U.S. is currently averaging nearly 751,000 COVID cases a day, and the Omicron variant is responsible for 98.3% of infections, according to latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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