Alaska Airlines will reduce its flight count by approximately 10 per cent for the remainder of the month as it works to reset a network that has been deeply impacted by employees calling out sick with Covid-19 and winter weather in Seattle.
“This will also give us time and space to find our path forward together, with Covid-19 as a continued reality in our business and our world,” the airline said in a statement Thursday.
The announcement came close after the cancellation of over than 2,000 U.S. flights, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
Alaska canceled 123 of its mainline flights on Thursday, accounting for 16 per cent of its schedule. Since Dec. 26, when Seattle was hit by its first winter storm of the season, Alaska has canceled nearly 2,000 mainline flights, amounting to 17 per cent of its schedule.
Southwest scuttled the most U.S. flights on Thursday — 641 as of early evening. That amounts to 21 per cent of the carrier’s schedule.
United, with an 11 per cent mainline cancellation rate, also continued to struggle.
Several regional carriers — including SkyWest, Republic, Mesa and Alaska Airlines regional subsidiary Horizon Air — also canceled 10 per cent or more of their schedule on Thursday.
