- The Federal Aviation Administration issued a stopover 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 airspace, which extends 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 all FAA facilities in Dallas.
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Dallas arrival and departure flights are being halted because the air traffic control center responsible for the region’s high-altitude airspace is undergoing a two and a half hour cleanup after one of the facility’s employees tested positive for COVID-19.
This is the second case this week when facility personnel tested positive for the virus, with the most recent incident occurring on Monday, shows the Federal Aviation Administration website. Six FAA facilities in the Dallas area reported positive cases of COVID-19, four of which reported cases several times, but this facility had a whopping 22 cases, including those on Wednesday.
The FAA issued a ground stop for all aircraft that landed in the facility’s airspace during cleaning, which extends well beyond the Dallas metropolitan area. Its airspace includes the skies of most of northern Texas, southern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, western Louisiana and eastern New Mexico.
Flights to Dallas that have not yet taken off are being made at their departure airports, while flights en route to the area are likely to need to enter waiting patterns or divert to other airports outside airspace until the stop is suspended.
The Dallas Air Route Traffic Control Center typically coordinates flights at higher altitudes departing and arriving at Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field. The airports are home to American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, respectively, which operate hundreds of daily flights from the city.
Aircraft scheduled to fly through Dallas’ wide airspace may also need to be redirected around it, which can increase flight times for other aircraft. The facility is still open, the FAA confirmed to Business Insider, but probably operating with a reduced workforce due to cleanliness.