More than 1,100 flight cancellations, over 3,000 delays as airline companies battle omicron variant, winter weather

As many Americans begin to return from their travels for the holidays, many are arriving at the airports to find a shocking amount of delays and flight cancellations as airline companies battle the omicron variant and winter weather across the US.

Across the United States, more than 1,100 flights have been cancelled on Thursday alone, with an additional 3,700 being delayed, according to Fox News correspondent David Lee Miller.

Jet Blue cancelled at least 17 percent of its scheduled flights on Thursday. Alaska Air cancelled 14 percent of its flights, with a majority of those flights being cancelled at in Seattle to give more time for workers to deice the planes. United Airlines cancelled 9 percent of their Thursday flights.

At the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport alone, more than a quarter of their flights for the day were cancelled.

Ahead of New Year's Eve on Friday, at least 600 flights have already been cancelled, according to Fox News.

"There's a mad dash to get a new flight there was no flights," said one traveller.

"I was supposed to come home Sunday, my plane was supposed to land in Seattle at six, it was canceled. We've been trying to get home since then," another traveller said.

"We've been pretty nervous about getting back home because we saw the cancellations and then with the increased cases of omicron," said a traveller, with another traveller adding that if his flight is cancelled, he would have to rent a car and drive 1,300 miles across the country.

Aviation expert Michael Boyd, called the current event a "controlled meltdown."

"It's not something where airplanes are ending up all over the country unexpectedly. What they're doing right now I guarantee you the airwaves are full of emails going to people saying you know your trip tomorrow has been postponed we've rebooked you for next Thursday, or something like that, but they're trying to do the best they can," he said.

Speaking on the shortened CDC guidelines for quarantining, Boyd said: "Well, I think the real issue here is that's a medical issue one way or the other. And if they decided a shorter quarantine period works, I would go along with them," adding that "The real issue is people are living in a little bit of fear of getting this disease."

In addition to COVID-19 concerns regarding travel, Boyd noted the difficulties of traveling in the winter months.

"I think somewhere in Holy Scripture, there's something where it's been decided if you're gonna have weather, you're gonna have thunderstorms, or whatever, it’ll only happen during, you know, a major holiday period. I haven't found it yet, but I'm sure it's there," he joked.

Boyd also noted that "I do think that these mask requirements as a structure today are counterproductive," adding that "But nowadays, but a lot of people getting this omicron variant had been already vaccinated. So having a vaccination passport to get on an airplane doesn't make a whole lot of sense when it's showing that vaccination doesn't necessarily make any difference."