Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Workload; Troubleshooting; Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Distraction; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
An hour before our flight; from ZZZ1-ZZZ2 the flight crew and I got a notification that ZZZ1 Center was going to close down for the duration of our flight due to COVID cleaning. The First Officer and I tried to be proactive by talking with Dispatch and ATC about possible re-routes or delays. We were told to expect an alternate route; but could not get a specific route. We received our PDC and it was as filed. Upon pushback; we started to taxi out; ATC gave us an alternate route. We spoke with Dispatch and confirmed we had more than enough fuel to make the flight. Right around the ZZZ4 area; the Center controllers gave us another route which took us even further west than originally planned. We spoke with Dispatch; and again confirmed we had the fuel to make the flight to ZZZ2. The route took us out west over STATE; south; and then due East back towards ZZZ2. Upon reaching our last way point out west; which would then take us due East; ATC then gave us a heading of 240; that took us in the complete opposite direction of where we needed to go. They then switch us to ZZZ Center; there were several other aircraft attempting to fly East but were also unable due to sequencing because of the ZZZ1 Center outage. Our fuel was showing 3700 pounds landing at ZZZ2; more than enough for us to continue the flight as planned. We checked on with the center controllers and it took several tries to establish contact due to the saturation of other flights trying to get in the direction we were going. We were finally able to get acknowledgement from the Controller who told us he was unsure of when we could expect a turn back to the East. The First Officer and I began to make a plan on what to do if we could not get turned back in the right direction in the next couple minutes. We were finally able to get back in contact with the Controller; he told us we were number 7-8 in line to get a turn East. The turn wasn't even confirmation that we would be back on our original route. We monitored our fuel and we decided that at 3000 pounds; due to the uncertainty that we could get our original clearance back on course to ZZZ2 that we would need to divert. We had ZZZ5 on our route to ZZZ2. I looked in our Jeppesen charts and noted that we had sufficient runway and facilities there to meet our needs if we were to divert. I confirmed with the First Officer that we would need to go there; given the circumstances if we could not get turned back on course. We hit our fuel mark of 3000 pounds; I reached out to ATC and told them we needed to divert due to fuel. The controller turned us in the direction of ZZZ5 and we started to prepare everything to land there. In the short amount of time we had; we reached out to Dispatch; let them know our plan. We got a We got a hold of operations on the ground; advised them we would need fuel and a gate to get us refuel. We were able to get direct to the field; we landed with 3500 pounds of fuel. We taxied to the terminal; had a gate waiting for us; as well as a fuel truck. I called Dispatch once we landed to go over what had happened. The Dispatcher had us refilled already; with fuel totals. We spoke to operations at ZZZ5; they got us refueled and on our way within 40 min of landing. We were able to take off from ZZZ5 and make it to ZZZ2 about an hour and thirty minutes after our scheduled arrival time.
Air carrier Captain reported having to divert due to fuel issues related to ATC Zero Center closure and re-routes.