Midway Air Traffic Control Tower Reopens After Employees Test Positive for COVID-19

Midway Airport’s air traffic control tower, which had been closed for cleaning when three employees tested positive for the new coronavirus last week, has reopened.

The employees tested positive on March 17, according to a Federal Aviation Administration website.

The airport remained open while the tower was shut down for cleaning, but with limited operations. Flights, which can be controlled from an alternate air traffic control facility, were initially being allowed to take off one at a time.

The FAA did not address questions about whether other employees at Midway had been tested or asked to self-quarantine.

Only 80 of the 220 Southwest Airlines flights that would normally be scheduled to depart Midway Tuesday are operating, a spokesman said in an email. Some cancellations were due to the tower’s closure, while others were canceled because of the decline in travel demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

Southwest said it expects to cancel about 1,000 of its 4,000 daily flights across all U.S. airports through March 27, after which it will cancel 1,500 flights through mid-April.

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