Flights are being halted at 2 major airports in Texas to disinfect an air traffic control center where 2 workers tested positive for COVID-19 this week

• The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop for flights departing and arriving into Dallas while a facility is being cleaned after two workers tested positive for COVID-19 this week.
• Flights are also temporarily barred from landing or taking off from any airport under the 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 any FAA facility in Dallas. 
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Flights in and out of Dallas are being grounded as the air traffic control center responsible for the region’s high-altitude airspace is undergoing a two and a half hour cleaning after one of the facility’s personnel tested positive for COVID-19.

This is the second case this week where facility personnel tested positive for the virus, with the most recent incident occurring as recently as Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration’s website shows. Six FAA facilities in the Dallas area have reported positive COVID-19 cases, four of which reported cases multiple times, but this facility has experienced a whopping 22 cases, including Wednesday’s. 

The FAA issued a ground stop for all aircraft landing within the facility’s airspace during the cleaning, which extends well beyond the Dallas metropolitan area. Its airspace includes the skies above most of Northern Texas, Southern Oklahoma, Western Arkansas, Western Louisiana, and Eastern New Mexico. 

Dallas-bound flights that haven’t taken off yet are being held at their departure airports while flights en route to the area will likely need to enter holding patterns or divert to other airports outside of the airspace until the ground stop is lifted.

The Dallas Air Route Traffic Control Center typically coordinates flights in upper altitudes that depart from and arrive 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 slated to fly through Dallas's wide-ranging airspace may also need to be rerouted around it, which can increase flight times for other aircraft. The facility is still open, the FAA confirmed to Business Insider, but likely operating with a reduced workforce due to the cleaning.