Commercial Fixed Wing
Dispatch Dispatcher
Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Procedure; Human Factors; Airport; Environment - Non Weather Related
At turn over Aircraft X had ZZZZ listed as their southern ETOPS alternate. Was advised that flight was released with ZZZ and ZZZZ as their ETOPS alternate and ZZZZ has a NOTAM that states ZZZZ is not available as an alternate.[Dispatcher] called and spoke with the tower and was not given a clear answer if we can use ZZZZ as an emergency airport. After taking over the flight told crew not to depart until I was able to correct ETOPS alternate. Was able to send all weather and numbers to crew and changed ETOPS alternate to ZZZ. Flight departed 10 mins late.During planning of flight; ZZZZ NOTAM said it was not to be used as an alternate due to covid-19. Since an ETOPS alternate is an emergency situation I felt it was appropriate to use. the other airport ZZZZ1 had it runway closed during the ETOPS window. And the other airport ZZZ1 I felt had erratic weather observations; so I felt ZZZZ was the best choice. I called the tower to discuss using them as an airport in case of an inflight emergency. The tower controller passed me on to the manager. When I talked to him I got a vague response that an IFE would be ok to use ZZZZ as an alternate. After the fact other Ground Operations Control personnel had phone conversations with ZZZZ; whereas ZZZZ could not be used as an ETOPS alternate. After shift turn over Dispatcher had to change the ETOPS alternate.
Dispatcher reported prior to flight departure; a required alternate airport was NOTAMed unavailable due to COVID-19.