- The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a ground stop for flights departing and arriving in Dallas while a facility is being cleaned up after two workers tested positive for COVID-19 this week.
- Flights are also temporarily prohibited from landing or taking off from any airport under the airspace, which stretches across northern Texas from parts of New Mexico to parts of Louisiana and Arkansas.
- Exactly 22 people working at the facility reported having COVID-19, the highest of any FAA facility in Dallas.
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Flights to and from Dallas are grounded as the air traffic control center responsible for the region’s high airspace undergoes two and a half hours of cleaning after one of the facility’s staff tested positive for COVID-19.
This is the second case this week where staff from the facility tested positive for the virus, with the most recent incident taking place recently on Monday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s website. Six FAA facilities in the Dallas area reported positive COVID-19 cases, four of which reported multiple times, but this facility experienced a whopping 22 cases, including Wednesday.
During the cleanup, the FAA issued a ground stop for all aircraft that landed within the facility’s airspace, extending beyond the Dallas metropolitan area. Its airspace contains air above most of northern Texas, southern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, western Louisiana, and eastern New Mexico.
Dallas flights that have not yet taken off are being held at their departure airports, while flights to the area are likely to have to enter holding patterns or divert to other airports outside the airspace until the ground stop is lifted.
The Dallas Air Route Traffic Control Center typically coordinates flights at upper altitudes departing from Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas’ Love Field. At the airports are American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, respectively, which operate hundreds of daily flights from the city.
Aircraft that have to fly through Dallas’ wide airspace may also need to be diverted there, which could increase flight times for other aircraft. The FAA confirmed to Business Insider that the facility is still open, but is likely to work with a reduced workforce due to the cleanup.
The first high-profile incident of COVID-19 affecting sensitive air traffic control facilities occurred in March when the air traffic disruption at the Midway International Airport in Chicago was forced to close flights inside and outside the airport. In Las Vegas, the extensive closure of McCarran International Airport’s air traffic control facilities meant that aircraft had to communicate directly with each other to coordinate their movements.
Air traffic controllers at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport retreated to a secondary location while their control tower was closed for cleaning in March. Not all airports have backup facilities for their air traffic control.
Air traffic control centers are also usually closed overnight for cleaning to reduce the impact on flights during the day, but the frequent occurrences of this week probably required the afternoon cleaning. The ground stop also occurs during the busiest travel time of the pandemic, with daily more than one million passengers traveling through U.S. airports during the Christmas and New Year holidays.