MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Latam Airlines Colombia cancels 53 flights due to COVID-19

Passengers were offered a refund, a change of dates or a change of routes

With 18% of its crews on sick leave due to COVID-19, Latam Airlines Colombia has been forced to cancel some 53 domestic flights between Jan. 8 and 16. Most of the cases were said to be of the Omicron variant.

“For this reason and taking into account the rapid progress that the new variant has registered, which to date affects 18% of our crew members, the decision has been made to cancel 53 flights early from January 8 to 16, which corresponds to 4.5% of the operation in these 8 days, looking after the safety of our clients and co workers,” the airline said in a statement issued Saturday.

Under these circumstances, passengers were offered a refund for their tickets, a change of dates with no penalties or a change of routes subject to the condition of the fare paid.

”At the same time, we invite all passengers to check the status of their flights in our different communication channels such as our website, App Latam and keep abreast of the information that we will share constantly through our Twitter account @latam_co where they will be able to obtain constant information on affected flights,” the carrier's statement went on.

Latam Colombia also highlighted “95% of LATAM employees in the country have a complete vaccination scheme and from the airline, biosecurity measures have been reinforced.”

COVID-19 cases in Colombia increased sharply last week, reaching new records not seen since the beginning of July, due to the Omicron variant, although deaths were way below 100 a day, while the number exceeded 600 during the worst days of the crisis.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, Colombia has accumulated 5,330,662 cases and 130,338 deaths.

The highest number of infections in the last 24 hours was detected in Bogotá with 8,659; Antioquia, 7,517, and Valle del Cauca, with 4,871.

Authorities have called on the population to comply with biosecurity measures and to be vaccinated to avoid further infections.