Given its location 12 miles from the Mexican border, El Paso Worldwide Airport (ELP) is a vital gateway each for vacationers to and from southwestern Texas and people occurring south to completely different areas of Mexico.
Because the busiest airport in western Texas and Twenty third-largest metropolis within the nation, El Paso sees round 70 flights on a given day; ELP noticed just below 4 million passengers move by way of its doorways in 2025. Within the late hours of Feb. 10, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency restriction closing the airspace round El Paso for “special security reasons” for the subsequent 10 days.
The NOTAM goes on to say that pilots who don’t abide by this flying ban “may be intercepted, detained and interviewed” whereas the federal government may additionally use lethal pressure in instances the place an airplane is recognized as posing an “imminent security threat.”
“A temporary flight restriction halting all flights to and from El Paso”
With little or no info on the bottom cease launched and presently obtainable, the abrupt cancelation of greater than 70 flights has prompted important disruption to a significant metropolis of just below 700,000 residents. Airways like Southwest, Delta and United are among the many airways having to cancel flights whereas the American Airways 3348 Flight from Chicago ended up changing into the final to land on the airport at 10:57 p.m. on Feb. 10.
“The FAA, on short notice, issued a temporary flight restriction halting all flights to and from El Paso and our neighboring community, Santa Tera,” the town of El Paso mentioned in a press release on the airspace closure. “[…] Commercial airlines operating out of El Paso are being informed of the restriction, which appears to be security related. Travelers are encouraged to contact their airlines to get the latest information on their flight status.”
Associated: Important mistake suspected in deadly American Airways crash
Native authorities official Chris Canales additional mentioned that whereas it doesn’t seem that El Paso is beneath “any kind of imminent safety threat,” the lack of expertise and advance discover to the town or its airport authorities prompted important panic amongst vacationers that they’re ill-equipped to handle.
Southwest Airways had greater than 460 flights scheduled into El Paso Worldwide Airport over the subsequent 10 days.
Carter/Getty Pictures
Details about the El Paso flight floor cease as it’s presently identified
The closure impacts not simply business aviation but in addition all cargo and coaching, search, agricultural and medical evacuation flights.
In a dialog between air site visitors controllers captured by tracker LiveATC.web, one working within the management tower is captured telling a colleague to move the sudden floor cease “to Southwest and everybody else at 0630” and that the air site visitors controllers “just got informed about 30 minutes to an hour ago.”
Journey information:
- Airline to launch uncommon new flight to Cayman Islands from the U.S.
- United Airways CEO offers stark warning on Olympic Video games
- Surprising nation is most luxurious journey vacation spot for 2026
- US authorities points sudden warning on Switzerland journey
The restriction in opposition to all flights is presently in place till 11:30 p.m. of Feb. 20. With over 460 flights scheduled into El Paso throughout that interval, Southwest is by far the most-affected service though American Airways and Delta are additionally left with a whole bunch of stranded passengers.
“At the direction of the FAA, Southwest has paused all operations to and from El Paso International Airport,” the latter airline mentioned in a press release. “We have notified affected Customers and will share additional information as it becomes available.”
This text may also be up to date with extra info because it turns into obtainable.
Associated: One other journey firm recordsdata for chapter, cancels all journeys
