The schedule of departures of flights which are operated by Alaska Airlines has been reduced by approximately ten percent for the month of January 2022 due to the Omicron variant of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, which has led to a temporary reduction of employees available at the airline.
Alaska Airlines Decreases Departures By Ten Percent For January 2022; Flexible Travel Policy in Place
The official press release from Alaska Airlines states in its entirety that:
As we have entered 2022, the continued impacts of omicron have been disruptive in all our lives and unprecedented employee sick calls have impacted our ability to operate our airline reliably. We are deeply grateful for how our incredible employees have pulled together to take care of our guests and each other, operate safely and make the best of a very difficult situation. To our guests, we apologize for the considerable inconvenience and are working hard to return to the level of service they know and expect from us.
We’re at our best when we are safe, reliable and caring. And right now, we need to build more reliability back into our operation as we deal with the impacts of omicron and during a time when guests generally fly less. We’ve decided to reduce departures by about 10% through the end of January. This will give us the flexibility and capacity needed to reset while continued flexible travel policies enable guests to adjust their plans accordingly. 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.
We will learn from these challenges, improve where we must and deliver on our promise to deliver nonstop care each and every day.
Alaska Airlines currently has a flexible travel policy which is in effect through Sunday, January 16, 2022 with which the difference in the price of the ticket will be waived if the new travel is booked with the same origin and destination; in the same cabin; and travel is completed during the new travel dates listed above — but additional taxes may apply.
Whether this flexible travel policy will be extended as a result of the reduction in the schedule of the departures of flights is unknown at the time this article was written.
Final Boarding Call
If you plan on traveling on an airplane which is operated by Alaska Airlines during the month of January 2022, be prepared for the possibility of canceled or delayed flights…
…and this does not take into account any inclement weather which could also potentially further impact operations at the airline, as the recent unusually cold winter weather has only been adding to the tens of thousands of cancellations and delays of flights which have been plaguing airlines in the United States since Christmas Eve on Friday, December 24, 2021; and other airlines have been proactively canceling flights as well.
Photograph ©2018 by Brian Cohen.
