American airline Jetblue will start the new year by canceling a total of 1,280 flights through mid-January. The rapidly increasing spread of the virus means that the company is suffering from a staff shortage and is therefore having to change its schedule.

”We expect the number of COVID cases in the northeastern United States – where the majority of our employees are based – to continue to rise over the next two weeks,” says a spokesperson for the airline.

Airlines around the world have recently been hit not only by an increase in the number of infected people but also by new travel restrictions. In the US, the number of infected people has now averaged over 250,000 per day over the past week.

American airlines were among the losers on Wall Street yesterday. American Airlines fell 2.6 percent, United Airlines fell 1.9 percent and Delta Airlines retreated 1.2 percent. JetBlue, in turn, lost 2.0 percent yesterday and is also down slightly in today's pre-market trading.

Source: TT