good evening to you, meg. it it st another very busy travel day here at lax more than 200,000 people are expected to pass through today alone. a lot of those flyers unhappy with these delays and cancellations cutting into their vacation time. one woman was telling me if she had driven instead of flown she would have made it to her destination yesterday but is still stuck here. covid cancellations hit u.s. airports for the third straight day with more than 700 flights grounded, stranding passengers on one of the bus yetion travel weekends of the year. cuts vacation short, christmas vacation. we have to it be back for work. so it was supposed to it be, you know, a nice family vacation, meeting up with other family up there. so it is upsetting. what did you tell the airlines. that it was wrong, they should have let us know earlier. thousands eager to take flights found themselves facing cancellations and delays as airlines had more sick calls and staffing shortages. delta and un
that is it for us at 5:00 and we will see you back here captioning sponsored by cbs tonight covid cancellations. hundreds of flights cancelled from coast to coast this holiday weekend as airlines face staffing shortages amid an om o kron surge. i m lilia luciano at la comrks where the holiday travel rush continues here and across the country. also tonight safety measures with covid numbers rising in a majority of the country. the concerns over how to stop the spread. i m in new york city, whereas you can see behind me many people are lining up to get covid tests after the holiday get togethers. plus the passing of a human rights icon, the lasting legacy of archbishop desmond tutu. we will be free! and 5g fallout. the battle between government agencies amid lingering safety
distance. one passenger was telling me she felt very vulnerable seeing so many people not wearing masks on flights and also walking around terminals. a lot of anxiety, lilia luciano, thank you. now to the surge in the omicron covid var yantd. one in four hospitals with icu s reportedly 95 percent capacity this week. and the omicron spike shows no sign of slowing. cbs s tom hanson joins us now from new york with more, tom, good evening. hey there meg, good evening to you, with just a week left in the holiday season, the omicron var yantd is bearing down across the country and health experts are sounding the alarm over a post holiday covid surge, especially among the most vulnerable. because i need to know, for the safety of my job and everyone else around me. testing lines wrapped around the block in washington d.c. where omicron cases have skyrocketed. there are similar scenes from los angeles to new orleans. one recent study suggests that omicron cases on average have as
flight-halting kens consequences for airlines caught in the middle much starting january 5th, u.s. airlines may have to stop using equipment that helps pilots land in bad weather or low visibility at more than 40 of the nation s bus yes airports following an faa order prompted by concerns about possible interferntion from newly activated 5g cell phone towers. 5g is now the biggest issue facing the airline industry, it is remarkable it to say in a world where we are still in covid. united c.e.o. scott kirby says airlines have no choice but to adhere to the faa order. if we go back to decades old procedures and technology for flying airplanes, cancel thousands of flights per day and hundreds of thousands of customers, it thrb a catastrophic failure of government. the wireless industry insists there is not a safety issue, arguing the aviation industry s fearmongerring relies on completely discredited information and deliberate distortions of fact. at&t and verizon are pledging to
questions. also going green. environmentalists rewriting the ending on this christmas tradition. and later, neon nostalgia. there is just not enough demand. how hong kong is shining a light on a fading art form. this is the cbs weekend this is the cbs weekend news good evening, i m meg oliver in new york, jericka duncan is off. for a second year in a row covid is causing headaches for holiday travelers across the u.s. new infections spreading like wildfire have sparked staffing shortages resulting in long delays and cancellations. new cooed vid infections exceeded 200,000 a day over the past two weeks. that s up 69 percent. covid deaths are on the rise too. cbs s lilia luciano leads use off with a look at post holiday travel, lilia, good evening.