Washington, Dec 31 (IANS): JetBlue, a major American low cost airline, will cut around 1,280 flights or 10 per cent of total schedule through January 13 as its crew members were infected by the Omicron Covid-19 variant, a media report said.

On Thursday, the New York-based airline cancelled 175 flights, or 17 per cent of its scheduled flights, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.com.

"We expect the number of Covid cases in the northeast - where most of our crew members are based - to continue to surge for the next week or two," Xinhua news agency quoted a JetBlue spokesperson as saying in a statement.

This means there is a high likelihood of additional cancellations until case counts start to come down, the spokesperson added.

The US is experiencing a sharp rebound of Covid-19 infections across the country with the northeastern area hit hard.

New York State reported 74,207 positive Covid-19 cases on Thursday with the positive rate of testing rising to 22.05 per cent.

"This past week has been one of our most difficult operating periods during the pandemic," JetBlue department leaders said in a note to staff on Tuesday, according to a report by CNBC on Thursday.

United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines on Thursday cancelled 198 flights, 119 flights and 97 flights, respectively, according to FlightAware.com.