KANSAS CITY, Mo. — COVID-related cleaning at the Kansas City Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility led to a ground stop Tuesday morning at Kansas City International Airport, according to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
Ground stops are implemented to control air traffic volume when traffic demand "is expected to exceed the airport's acceptance rate," according to the FAA glossary. During a ground stop, flights destined to the airport are held until the Ground Stop is ended.
The facility closed at 6:30 a.m., and the Kansas City Air Route Traffic Control Center took control of the airspace.
The ground stop began at 6:45 a.m. and the FAA no longer listed an active alert shortly before 9 a.m.
The air traffic control tower reopened at 9 a.m. following the cleaning.
During the ground stop, a single runway was used for departures and arrivals.
The airport announced the issue is causing flight delays in a Tweet, and that flights were still taking off and landing.
The ground stop applied to incoming travel from Chicago, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Cleveland, Denver, Memphis, Indianapolis, Albuquerque and Minneapolis.
At 8 a.m., 11 incoming flights to KCI were delayed by an average of 30 minutes, and 11 outgoing flights were delayed by an average of 61 minutes.
Information on flight delays is available online.
