Omicron Takes a Toll on Companies, From Airports to Supermarkets

Airways over the weekend canceled hundreds of flights, capping every week wherein carriers scrubbed greater than 1,000 flights every day, based on knowledge compiled by FlightAware. Along with snowstorms that snarled airports within the Pacific Northwest and Midwest, airways together with Delta Air Strains Inc., DAL 0.10% JetBlue Airways Corp. and United Airways Holdings Inc. UAL -0.79% mentioned rising Covid-19 infections amongst crew members hampered their skills to employees flights on the identical time vacation journey was rebounding from 2020 ranges.

New York-based JetBlue trimmed its flight schedule by mid-January as extra crew members contract the virus, an issue that Chief Govt Robin Hayes mentioned has turn out to be more durable to navigate than when the pandemic first emerged in early 2020.

“That is actually the primary time we’ve a…very transmissive part, variant of Covid on the identical time that we’re in a peak journey interval,” Mr. Hayes mentioned.

He predicted different airways will more and more face related staffing challenges. “It’ll transfer round, not simply the U.S., however transfer world wide,” he mentioned.

Grocery store operators mentioned they anticipate the Omicron variant’s unfold will drive elevated absences amongst cashiers, stockers and different workers within the days forward, deepening staffing issues the grocery sector has confronted for months.

“The trade typically mirrors the general inhabitants, so I feel that is considerably inevitable that it’ll hit in every single place,” mentioned Neil Stern, CEO of Good Meals Holdings LLC. The corporate operates greater than 50 West Coast shops, together with the Bristol Farms and Metropolitan Market chains.

In Williamsville, N.Y., Tops Markets LLC mentioned it’s counting on time beyond regulation and asking obtainable staff to cowl extra shifts throughout the corporate’s 162 grocery shops. The corporate mentioned it’s coaching workers throughout a number of departments because it displays what the chain’s officers referred to as a major enhance within the variety of Covid-19 instances amongst its staff.

Rising infections have led some retailers to quickly shut shops, resembling Apple Inc., AAPL -0.35% which restricted entry to New York Metropolis-area places, together with its iconic Fifth Avenue flagship.

Some enterprise leaders, together with executives of Delta and JetBlue, this month referred to as on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention to cut back its beneficial quarantine time for vaccinated individuals, a transfer they mentioned would assist get healthcare staff, airline crew members and others again on the job extra rapidly. The CDC final week minimize its beneficial isolation time to 5 days from 10, citing new analysis and the stress on companies because of employee absences.

Toyota Motor Corp. TM 0.66% , which employs about 48,000 individuals throughout greater than 20 services within the U.S., mentioned it has typically been carrying further employees in anticipation {that a} sure variety of staff may be quarantined. The corporate can check staff on web site and has been monitoring instances, together with publicity and infections, amongst its workers.

“That mentioned, we don’t but know what’s going to occur in January,” a Toyota spokesman mentioned. The Japanese auto maker is aligning its insurance policies with the brand new CDC pointers, which the spokesman mentioned will scale back quarantine instances.

Delta can also be implementing the shorter quarantine instances, the corporate has mentioned. A Southwest Airways Co. spokeswoman mentioned the Dallas-based service was reviewing the CDC’s revised isolation steering.

The Affiliation of Flight Attendants-CWA, a labor union, has pushed again on the brand new CDC suggestions, warning that it might imply infectious staff crewing flights or boarding planes as passengers. The union has referred to as for the prior 10-day quarantine interval to be maintained, together with extra testing and masking practices.

JetBlue’s Mr. Hayes mentioned the revised CDC steering protected public well being whereas permitting society to proceed to operate. He mentioned the brand new suggestions enabled the airline to start bringing workers again to work and to take care of operations.

“We’re nonetheless dropping extra individuals each day than we’re getting come again,” Mr. Hayes mentioned. “A lot of our crew members are actually stepping up and taking extra shifts.”

The deepening challenges that Omicron’s unfold poses for companies has led some economists to chop their progress forecasts for early 2022, anticipating persevering with employee shortages for firms and decreased shopper spending on journey and leisure. Up to now, economists have mentioned, the brand new variant hasn’t pushed jobless claims noticeably increased.

Some companies mentioned they’re managing, together with meatpacking firms, whose staff have been among the many hardest hit when the coronavirus started spreading within the U.S. in early 2020. Smithfield Meals Inc., the most important U.S. pork processor by gross sales, mentioned instances amongst its workers stay beneath the overall inhabitants. Different meat firms, together with Tyson Meals Inc., TSN 0.97% JBS USA Holdings Inc. and Cargill Inc., mentioned they’ve had no operational disruptions due to the latest surge in Covid-19 instances.

Bar Louie, a sequence primarily based in Addison, Texas, has lately scaled again hours at a few of its roughly 70 eating places due to staffing shortages, Chief Working Officer Damian Mazza mentioned. The corporate has maintained masks necessities for staff all through the pandemic, however as Omicron spreads, instances amongst staff have jumped in some markets, Mr. Mazza mentioned.

Bar Louie is coping, he mentioned, thanks partly to a less complicated menu the chain developed in the course of the pandemic that has helped its kitchens function with decreased employees and different Covid-19 associated disruptions. The corporate has beefed up to-go and supply choices to maintain promoting meals throughout case surges, Mr. Mazza mentioned.

Nonetheless, he mentioned, Bar Louie places have lately decreased their hours at instances, “to make sure our workforce members aren’t overworked.”

—Christina Rogers, Patrick Thomas and Khadeeja Safdar contributed to this text.

Write to Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com, Jaewon Kang at jaewon.kang@wsj.com and Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com