MIAMI – An unwelcome surprise for thousands of people hoping to catch a flight on Christmas Eve.

Delta and United airlines have canceled hundreds of flights because their crews have been directly impacted by the Omicron variant.

United Airlines canceled at least 131 flights scheduled to leave dozens of airports on Friday along with another 28 that were supposed to take off on Saturday, according to Flight Aware.

Delta Airlines canceled close to 100 flights on Friday due to multiple issues including the virus.

Other airlines, including JetBlue, and Allegiant, did the same, adding up to 1,404 cancellations as of Thursday evening, the website said.

At Miami International Airport, it will be one of the busiest travel days of the year. Airport officials said they are expecting more than 2,600,00 travelers between December 21st and January 6th.

“The travel industry never really made a full recovery, but people are tired of staying home, they want to travel, it’s been a long time since they’ve been able to see family members spent time together and, of course, travel the world,” said travel expert Sandra McLemore.

Earlier this week President Joe Biden and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said those who are vaccinated and boosted can safely gather during the holidays. However, Fauci noted there’s no doubt there will be breakthrough cases.

A majority of travelers said they weighed the risks of holiday travel in light of Omicron and decided to go for it.

“We’ve been trapped for, I don’t know, two years and we’re kind of feeling a little bit of wanting to do something to do a little bit of normalcy,” said Jenny Larson.

Delta and United said they’re working to notify all passengers and get everyone rebooked–

If you need to cancel or move your flight, keep in mind major airlines eliminated change fees earlier on in the pandemic, so, you shouldn’t face any penalties for changes and on most airlines, you’ll be able to keep your credit if you have to cancel.