Bizarre: FAA Closes El Paso Airspace For 10 Days

This was a bizarre move.

The FAA has just announced that the airspace over El Paso, Texas, will be closed for the next 10 days.

The exact reasons for the closure were not specified, but the FAA did note it was due to security concerns.

Fox News broke the story:

🚨THIS ISN’T MINOR, THIS IS MAJOR.

Aviation expert Mike Boyd: “They’ve found something in El Paso or the surrounding area that is a legitimate threat.”

FAA shuts down ALL airspace over El Paso for 10 full days?pic.twitter.com/7RPst5Gnig

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) February 11, 2026

Axios had these details to report on the airspace being closed:

A 10-mile ring of airspace centered on El Paso, Texas, is effectively closed to aircraft for the next 10 days after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a surprise restriction late Tuesday night for “special security reasons.”

The temporary flight restriction, or TFR, includes the airspace over El Paso International Airport, effectively shutting down the city’s main aviation link.

A notice to pilots classified the area as “national defense airspace,” and warned that deadly force may be used against aircraft violating the restriction, standard language for such designations.

“All flights to and from El Paso are grounded, including commercial, cargo and general aviation,” El Paso International Airport posted on Facebook early Wednesday.

“Travelers should contact their airlines to get most up-to-date flight status information.”

Local lawmakers, including Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) and Texas State Rep. Vincent Perez (D), were surprised by the move, The New York Times reports. El Paso City Representative Chris Canales posted on Reddit, “Nobody local got advance notice — neither civilian nor military leadership.

UPDATE:

The FAA has just released the following post on X:

The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal.

— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) February 11, 2026

The Associated Press has reported that the FAA has reopened airspace around El Paso:

The Federal Aviation Administration reopened the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas on Wednesday morning, just hours after it announced a 10-day closure that would have grounded all flights to and from the airport.

The FAA said in a social media post that it has lifted the temporary closure of the airspace over El Paso, saying there was no threat to commercial aviation and that all flights will resume.

The shutdown announced just hours earlier “for special security reasons” had been expected to create significant disruptions given the duration and the size of the metropolitan area.

El Paso, a border city with a population of nearly 700,000 people and larger when you include the surrounding metro area, is hub of cross-border commerce alongside the neighboring city of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. The brief closure does not include Mexican airspace.

The airport said in an Instagram post after the closure was announced that all flights to and from the airport would be grounded from late Tuesday through late on Feb. 20, including commercial, cargo and general aviation flights.

How does that sound?