Holiday Flights Canceled at Hollywood Burbank, Other Airports Due to COVID-19 Issues

Half a dozen flights were reported canceled at the Hollywood Burbank airport on Sunday as more flights were canceled at Southland airports and around the world, as a wave of cancellations over the holiday weekend driven by the coronavirus pandemic continued to inconvenience travelers.

The Hollywood Burbank Airport is run by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, a separate government agency created under a joint powers agreement between the three cities of Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena in 1977 for the sole purpose of owning and operating the airport.

Currently, Pasadena Councilmembers Felicia Williams and Tyron Hampton sit on the authority.

As of 8:15 a.m. on Sunday, tracking site FlightAware.com listed 87 cancellations Sunday at LAX, 920 involving flights into or out of the United States, and 2,500 total cancellations around the world.

There were 96 cancellations at LAX on Christmas Day, according to Flight Aware — part of 997 total cancellations involving U.S. flights, and 2,858 worldwide.

On Friday, 2,380 flights were canceled worldwide — 690 involving U.S. flights and 86 at LAX.

The scrapped flights were largely blamed on airline staffing shortages caused by the latest surge in coronavirus cases, fueled by the Omicron variant. Weather issues were also causing some of the cancellations.

Eighteen cancellations were listed Sunday at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, and six each at Long Beach Airport.

After acknowledging the cancellations Friday, LAX did not comment on Saturday or Sunday’s cancellations, but did tweet Sunday morning that “Today is expected to be another peak travel day at #LAX with up to 200,000 passengers using the airport! Make sure to arrive early for your flight, pre-book parking at http://parking.flylax.com, and please wear your mask – wishing everyone #HealthyHolidays #LAXTravelSafely.”

The airport was dealing with a separate, storm-related electrical issue affecting Terminal 5, and said passengers using American Airlines, JetBlue or Spirit would be directed to use security checkpoints and baggage claims in Terminals 4 and 6.

“Cancellations and delays are possible, so it will be important to check your flight status today if flying through Terminal 5. Thank you for your patience,” LAX tweeted Sunday morning.