The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took an unprecedented step and closed the airspace above the international airport in El Paso, Texas, and in the nearby city of Santa Teresa, with immediate effect.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on its website on Wednesday that for “special security reasons” it closed the airspace around the international airport in the city of El Paso, Texas, for ten days and canceled all take-offs and landings. He did not provide further details. TASR informs about it with reference to the AP agency and NBC News television.
- The FAA has closed the airspace near the El Paso airport.
- The restriction applies to all flights for ten days.
- The space was declared a national defense zone.
- The airport advised passengers to contact their airlines.
- The closure will cause problems for more than 2.5 million residents.
The FAA also imposed a temporary flight restriction for ten days from Tuesday at the airport in the city of Santa Teresa, New Mexico, about 24 kilometers northwest of the airport in El Paso.
They designated the airspace as a zone of national defense
El Paso Airport said in an Instagram post that the restriction began at 11:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday (07:30 a.m. CET on Wednesday) and will end at the same time on February 21. Applies to all flights. It advised passengers to contact their airlines for up-to-date flight information.
In the FAA guidance for pilots known as NOTAM (Notice to Airmen or Notice to Air Missions), it is stated that the airspace over both locations has been classified as national defense space. As a last resort, lethal force could be used against aircraft in it if they posed a security threat.
Closing the airport will cause problems
El Paso Airport handled 3.49 million passengers in the first 11 months of 2025. It is used by the largest American companies such as Southwest, Delta, United and American. The American Airlines flight from Chicago was the last to land there before the airspace was closed at 22:57 local time.
The closure of the airport is likely to cause significant problems. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 23rd largest in the US. On the opposite bank of the border river Rio Grande lies the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, and more than 2.5 million people live in the entire agglomeration.
