Flights within the Dallas-Fort Worth area, area have restarted after being temporarily halted because the local air traffic control center underwent cleaning related to COVID-19.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) coronavirus map, the Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center underwent cleansing from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday, after two staff tested positive for the coronavirus over a three-day period this week.
However, simply before 5:30 p.m. CT, Dallas Love Field tweeted that the “air visitors stoppage” had been lifted and that flights resumed operations.
“The FAA has closed the airspace in and out of the DFW Airport till 5:00 p.m. Central Time,” the airport stated in a statement. “This is because of a required sanitization cleaning of offsite FAA facilities that control the airspace in DFW.”
On Wednesday evening, DFW Airport tweeted the FAA’s request for a full ground stop.
“This will lead to flights being delayed or possibly canceled,” the airport added. “Customers are encouraged to monitor flight status boards or contact your airline for updated data.”
The FAA told KXAS, the NBC owned-and-operated TV station in Fort Worth, that the delays had been also the result of thunderstorms as well as cleaning the control center.
At 6:20 pm CT, shortly after the ground order was lifted Dallas Love Field warned travelers that delays were still to be expected.
The Dallas area’s “Airport Status Information” web page,
provided by the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center, posted that “some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 2 hours and 50 minutes.”
