ATLANTA, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- A spate of employee absences forced Delta Airlines to cancel or delay at least 33 Christmas Day flights, airline officials said.
"They're screwing up hundreds of people's vacations," Joel Babbit, a Delta public relations executive told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Babbit's own flight to Puerto Rico was among those canceled.
Delta spokesman Joshua Smith confirmed a number of flight attendants failed to show up Thursday, but he refused to speculate the reason why, the newspaper said.
"I don't want the flight attendants portrayed as a problem," Smith said. "They are professionals. It's hard to say what the exact reason is."
Smith told the newspaper there's been "a terrible case of the flu this season. Hypothetically, we could have an abnormally high number of sickouts."
Delta's flight attendants are not unionized, the newspaper said.
Affected flights covered several major destinations, including Chicago, Charlotte, Orlando, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mexico City and San Juan.
