El Paso Airport airspace reopened after unnamed security threat | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Given its location 12 miles from the Mexican border, El Paso International Airport (ELP) is an important gateway for travelers to and from southwestern Texas, as well as those continuing south to different regions of Mexico.

As the busiest airport in western Texas and 23rd-largest city in the country, El Paso sees about 70 flights on a given day. ELP saw just under four million passengers pass through its doors in 2025.

In the late hours of Feb. 10, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency restriction closing the airspace around El Paso for “special security reasons” for the next 10 days. CNN correspondent Pete Muntean, citing a source with knowledge of the matter later, posted on X (the former Twitter), indicating that the shutdown could be related to military operations at Biggs Army Airfield in nearby Fort Bliss.

The NOTAM, a notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight, stated that pilots who do not abide by this flying ban “may be intercepted, detained and interviewed.”

The notice also said the government could use deadly force in cases where an airplane is identified as posing an “imminent security threat.” While the ground stop was originally announced to last until Feb. 20, the FAA reversed course and lifted the restriction by 9 a.m. on Feb. 11.

Temporary flight restriction halted all flights to and from El Paso

With very little information on the ground stop released, the abrupt cancellation of more than 70 flights caused significant disruption to a major city of just under 700,000 residents. Airlines including Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines were among those having to cancel flights, while American Airlines’ 3348 flight from Chicago was the last to land at 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 city of El Paso said in a statement 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.”

Local government official Chris Canales further said that although it does not appear El Paso was under “any kind of imminent safety threat,” the lack of information and advance notice to the city or its airport authorities caused significant panic among travelers that they were ill-equipped to address, The New York Times reported.

Southwest Airlines had a number of flights disrupted during the closure of El Paso International Airport.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

What’s currently known about the El Paso flight ground stop

The closure affected not just commercial aviation but also all cargo and training, search, agricultural, and medical evacuation flights.

In a conversation between air traffic controllers captured by tracker LiveATC.net, one working in the control tower is captured telling a colleague to pass the sudden ground stop “to Southwest and everybody else at 0630” and that the air traffic controllers “just got informed about 30 minutes to an hour ago.”

Travel news:

Airlines such as Southwest, which had the most flights scheduled out of El Paso, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines will now begin to resume Wednesday flights that had been called off during the ground stop.

An FAA representative released a statement saying that “all flights will resume as normal,” while another source told The New York Times that the closure was part of a military test of counter-drone technology at Fort Bliss.

This article will also be updated with more information as it becomes available.