The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday night shut the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas for 10 days, citing “special security reasons” that demand the immediate grounding of all flights to and from the airport.
AP reports a notice posted on the FAA’s website gave the reasons for the shut down but did not provide additional details.
The no-fly restriction applies to airspace over El Paso as well as nearby Santa Teresa, New Mexico, with observers pointing out the restrictions apply to all aircraft operations as notified.
The closure does not include Mexican airspace.
Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez is just south and west of El Paso, and U.S. Army base Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range lie to the north.
Fort Bliss is a military post focused on training and White Sands Missile Range is the country’s largest overland testing range for missiles, rockets and advanced weapons.
The AP report further set out:
[…] 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. It suggested travelers contact their airlines to get up-to-date flight information.
The shutdown is likely 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 and larger when you include the surrounding metro area, is hub of cross-border commerce alongside neighboring Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.
The FAA has classified the declared zone as “national defense airspace,” with the notification saying deadly force could be used on craft violating the airspace if they are deemed to pose “an imminent security threat,” according to FOX News.
Long-term airspace closures are rare, as the FAA website said since 2018 it has cut airspace closures from an average of more than four hours per launch to just more than two hours.
Speculation on social media was quick to hazard a guess as to why the shut down occurred:
The facility describes itself as the gateway to west Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico. Southwest, United, American and Delta all operate flights there, among others.