NEW YORK — More than 200 flights have already been canceled at New York area airports as of Thursday morning and comes as the industry continues to struggle to keep up with challenges brought by the new COVID-19 variant.  

Nearly half of those cancellations were by JetBlue. 

The New York-based airline is reportedly cutting its schedule going into the new year as more crews call out sick with COVID. 

JetBlue is canceling more than 1,200 flights through January 13.

This way, travelers will have some time to adjust their plans instead of facing last-minute cancellations. 

The decision comes as airlines enter a sixth consecutive day of mass flight cancellations across the U.S.

As of Thursday morning, more than 1,000 flights coming into or out of the U.S. have been canceled, according to FlightAware.