LAS VEGAS – McCarran International Airport has shut down all gates at two concourses in response to declined air traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As passenger activity has declined, McCarran officials are continually evaluating the airport’s infrastructure and operations to identify ways to maximize efficiencies and implement cost-savings measures,” officials said in a news release Wednesday.

In the process of consolidating operations, the Department of Aviation has also reduced its on-site workforce.

Here’s a look at what’s now closed at McCarran International Airport, where more than 50 million people landed last year:

B Concourse: all gates, retail and concessions

C Annex Security Checkpoint

E Concourse, Level 2: secured side – all gates, retail and concessions

Meanwhile, Terminal 3 remains open with limited services during the closure of the E Concourse, officials said.

Passengers will still be able to access airline ticketing and check-in, the TSA checkpoint and baggage claim.

Any flight scheduled to depart from the E Concourse will shift to the D Concourse.

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Coronavirus cripples FAA control towers across the country

The concourse closures at McCarran come roughly two weeks after an air traffic controller there tested positive for coronavirus. Days earlier, the air traffic control tower at Chicago Midway Airport was closed after three FAA technicians tested positive for the coronavirus. Both towers had to be disinfected, forcing the delay or cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Since then, air traffic controllers and other workers at 24 airports and control facilities across the country have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

In the New York region alone, FAA personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 at five facilities, including LaGuardia and JFK International airports. New York has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, and public health experts predict that other regions of the country could see a rapid increase in the coming weeks.

The FAA declined to say how many air traffic controllers and other personnel have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. But the outbreak has caused major disruptions to the nation's airspace, and it has the potential to cause more.

While commercial airlines have sharply curtailed their schedules and parked planes, air traffic controllers remain essential for keeping cargo, military, medical and law enforcement flights in the air.

John Cox, a retired US Airways pilot who writes USA TODAY's Ask the Captain column, said the FAA is not likely to run out of personnel to manage U.S. airspace.

"It’s not as big a problem as it could be," he said. "If they need to, they can short staff."

Cox said the FAA already does that at night, when there are fewer flights. He said the FAA worked around the problems in Chicago and Las Vegas.

Both airports were still able to clear a reduced number of flights for takeoff and landing. Already dealing with a steep drop in demand, many carriers simply canceled flights.

"They kind of put a makeshift system together that worked," Cox said.

Airline capacity cuts keep coming

The concourse closures in Las Vegas come as COVID-19 travel fallout has battered the airline industry, forcing companies to ground planes and passengers to stay home.

Airlines have already dramatically slashed flights because of the plunge in air travel demand, and more cuts are ahead. Southwest Airlines, the most dominant carrier at McCarran, said on Tuesday said it will operate just 2,000 daily flights in May, more than 40% less than normal levels. Last week, Delta and American also announced further cuts.

And although the Department of Transportation has said that airlines that take stimulus money must continue flying the same number of routes they did on March 1, that order may be rendered temporarily moot if President Donald Trump implements a nationwide stay-at-home order.

"Once you do that," he said, in reference to further domestic flight cuts, "you are clamping down on an industry that is desperately needed."

Contributing: Curtis Tate, Chris Woodyard, Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY