Post-Christmas Air Travel out of SFO 'Going Well'
Dec. 26—With a break in the holiday rush, a relative calmness seemed to return Sunday to San Francisco International Airport.
Christmas travel hit a snag during the holiday weekend when major airlines canceled thousands of flights due to staffing shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the highly contagious omicron variant.
Russ Mackey, SFO airport duty manager, said Sunday evening that the cancellations were happening nationwide and did not all directly impact flights to and from SFO.
As of Sunday, five cancellations were on tap for Monday.
They included two departing flights to Los Angeles and Washington D.C., and three arriving flights from Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Eugene, Oregon.
Otherwise "flying out of here, it looks like they're going to do okay," Mackey said.
Despite some delays, everything was going smoothly at SFO, he added, compared to the days preceding Christmas when tens of thousands of people rushed through the airport on their way to spend the holidays with their loved ones.
"It looks like everything is going well," Mackey said. "Our traffic is back to our normal Sunday pattern, which is a little busy but not unmanageable."
About 53,000 people were expected to depart from SFO on Sunday. That's slightly more than on Dec. 22, which was the busiest holiday travel day with 49,900 departing passengers.
Similar data from Charles M. Schulz — Sonoma County Airport wasn't available Sunday.
SFO records showed there were 250 delayed flights and 50 canceled flights in effect on Sunday. Saturday had 244 delays and 32 cancellations, but previous days data wasn't available.
Those amounts include departures and arrivals, and delays could represent lags as short as 15 minutes, Mackey said.
He said he didn't have specific reasons for each one, but noted overall numbers aren't cause for alarm and are typical during periods of inclement weather.
The Bay Area on Sunday was at the tail end of a storm system that has dropped several inches of rain across the region.
Roughly a quarter of an inch of rain was measured across Sonoma County on Sunday, bringing total precipitation to upwards of 2 1/2 inches since wet conditions developed a week ago.
More rain may fall over the next couple days.
"Then late week, that's when we have a pretty good chance of a break," said Rick Canepa, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at [email protected]. On Twitter @colin_atagi
___
(c)2021 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)
Visit The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.) at www.pressdemocrat.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.