The Federal Aviation Administration has closed the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas, suspending all flights to and from the airport for the next 10 days. No explanation was given for the closure, other than a vague reference to “special security reasons”.
The closure was announced late on February 10th in a notice on the FAA website and is in effect until February 20th. A second announcement listed a similar closure for nearby Santa Teresa, New Mexico. Airspace within a 10-mile radius around the El Paso airport is included, although flights above 18,000 feet are not affected, as is Mexican airspace.
El Paso operates flights from major US airlines including Southwest, Delta, United and American. The New York Times says Southwest will be most affected by the closure, with 480 flights scheduled over the 10-day period. An unnamed airport spokesman said Times that the closure was issued “at short notice” and in a social media post told passengers to contact their airlines for more information.
“From what my office and I were able to gather overnight and early this morning, there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas,” El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar said in a series of posts on the website