NEW YORK: More than 3,600 flights were cancelled around the world on Sunday, more than half of them US flights, adding to the toll of holiday week travel disruptions due to adverse weather and the surge in coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant.

Over 3,600 flights had been cancelled by afternoon GMT on Sunday, including over 2,100 entering, departing from or within the United States, according to a running tally on the tracking website FlightAware.com. Including those delayed but not cancelled, more than 6,400 flights were delayed in total.

Rising Omicron cases disrupt air travel, 800 more flights cancelled

Among the airlines with maximum cancellations were SkyWest and SouthWest with each having over 400 cancellations, the FlightAware website showed.

The Christmas and New Year holidays are typically a peak time for air travel, but the rapid spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has led to a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights as pilots and crew quarantine.