FAA Closes El Paso Airspace for ‘Special Security Reasons’

The US Federal Aviation Administration closed the airspace around the border city of El Paso, Texas, for 10 days, in an unusual move that authorities put down to unspecified “special security reasons.”

All flights into and out of the city are suspended, the FAA said without elaborating on the reasons. The FAA has also prohibited all flight operations in the Santa Teresa area of New Mexico, citing special security reasons.

Flights from El Paso International Airport were halted starting Feb. 10 at 11:30 p.m. local time and will stay suspended until the same time on Feb. 20, the airport operator said in a travel advisory posted on its official Facebook and Instagram accounts. Bloomberg's Sid Philip joins Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney to discuss.  The US Federal Aviation Administration reopened airspace around El Paso, Texas, a sudden reversal after announcing a 10-day closure that grounded flights in the city on the US-Mexico border.

“There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal,” the agency posted on social media Wednesday.

The brief shutdown took place amid concern about interference between military drones and civilian aircraft.

The FAA made the decision in response to drones that the US Defense Department is flying in the area as part of an operation against Mexican drug cartels, according to people familiar with the matter. One of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public information, said the drones are operating outside of normal flight paths and that the FAA is unable to predict where they might be flying.

A Trump administration official said that a Mexican cartel drone breached US airspace and that the Pentagon took action to disable the drones. The official did not provide evidence to back up that claim. The FAA and Defense Department then determined that there was no threat to commercial travel, the official added.

The regulator had previously announced the 10-day suspension of flights around El Paso for “special security reasons,” in what would have been an unprecedented interruption for the regional hub.

Flights from El Paso International Airport were halted starting Feb. 10 at 11:30 p.m. local time. About 43 flights were scheduled to be operated from El Paso on Feb. 11, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines Group Inc. are the biggest airlines at El Paso, with Southwest due to operate 17 flights from the airport on Wednesday and American scheduled to fly 12 services.

While temporary air space closures occur due to military activity, rocket launches or presidential air traffic movements, a broad closure of a major airport for that length of time would have been unusual.

Passenger traffic at El Paso reached about 3.5 million in the first 11 months of 2025, and the airport is also used by other major carriers, including United Airlines Holdings Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and Alaska Air Group Inc. The temporary restrictions announced on Wednesday covered 10 nautical miles around the city and apply to an altitude of as much as 17,999 feet, according to the so-called FAA notice to airmen — a type of advisory warning of hazards and operational situations.

Fort Bliss, a US Army installation, is adjacent to El Paso’s airport and is home to several major units, including the 1st Armored Division and the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command. With an area of about 1 million acres, it is often used for training, as well as artillery testing. The base has its own 13,500-foot runway, capable of handling the largest aircraft in the US inventory.

About 30 miles away in New Mexico is White Sands Missile Range, which the US military has used since World War II for bombing and gunnery practice, and to test new weapons types. The Trinity Site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated, is at the northern end of the 2 million acre range. The airspace over the site can be restricted to allow safe testing of missiles and other long-range, high-altitude weapons.

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