{"id":462150,"date":"2026-02-11T12:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/462150\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T12:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:30:07","slug":"all-flights-at-el-paso-airport-in-texas-halted-for-10-days-for-security-reasons-faa-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/462150\/","title":{"rendered":"All flights at El Paso airport in Texas halted for 10 days for ‘security reasons,’ FAA says"},"content":{"rendered":"

All flights to and from El Paso International Airport in Texas<\/a> have been halted for \u201cspecial security reasons,\u201d the Federal Aviation Administration<\/a> said early Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM,\u201d the FAA said, using the abbreviation for Notice to Airmen. It listed the reason as \u201ctemporary flight restrictions for Special Security Reasons.\u201d <\/p>\n

The restriction for the airspace over El Paso and the neighboring community of Santa Teresa, New Mexico came in at 6:30 a.m. UTC, or coordinated universal time (11:30 p.m. ET). It will end at the same time on Feb. 21. <\/p>\n

It did not elaborate on why the restrictions had been put in place for El Paso, which borders Mexico and is the the 23rd-most populous city in the nation according to the 2020 census.<\/p>\n

But the NOTAM said the airspace was classified as national defense airspace. Deadly force could be used on an aircraft if it is determined that it \u201cposes and imminent security threat,\u201d it said, adding that pilots \u201cmay be intercepted, detained and interviewed\u201d by law enforcement and security personnel.<\/p>\n

An FAA spokesperson told NBC News they could comment beyond what the NOTAM already stated.<\/p>\n

El Paso International Airport did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from NBC News.<\/p>\n

The exclusion does not affect Ju\u00e1rez and Mexican airspace.<\/p>\n

The airport, which handled 3.49 million passengers in the first 11 months of 2025, confirmed the development in a travel advisory issued on social media, saying that all flights \u201cincluding commercial, cargo and general aviation\u201d were grounded. <\/p>\n

\u201cTravelers should contact their airlines to get most up-to-date flight status information,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n

Major U.S. airlines, including Southwest, Delta, United and American fly from the airport. <\/p>\n

An American Airlines flight from Chicago landed at El Paso International at 10:57 p.m. local time Tuesday, the last flight to arrive before airspace closed, according to flight-tracking platform Flightradar24. <\/p>\n

The next flight expected after that was a private plane from Everett, WA, scheduled to land at 1:13 a.m., but it was diverted to an airport in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the nearest U.S city, according to FlightRadar24. No further planes had been scheduled to land until after 9 a.m. on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Shortly before the NOTAM came into effect, a conversation between an air traffic controller at El Paso International and someone aboard a Southwest Airlines flight suggested the airport had only been notified in the past hour.<\/p>\n

The conversation was captured by LiveATC.net, a website that monitors and allows people to listen into air traffic control conversations. <\/p>\n

“Just be advised I guess there\u2019s a TFR going into effect,” the air traffic controller said, using the abbreviation for temporary flight restriction. “Just pass it on to Southwest and everybody else at 0630 for the next 10 days we\u2019re stopped. All ground stop.”<\/p>\n

Seemingly surprised about the closure, the person aboard the flight, Southwest WN1249, asks for confirmation. \u201cSo the airport is totally closed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently. We just got informed about 30 minutes to an hour ago.,\u201d the air traffic controller replied. <\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Henry Austin\u00a0is a senior editor for NBC News Digital based in London.<\/p>\n

Jay Blackman, Christiana Corporon, Caroline Radnofsky and Sara Mhaidli contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All flights to and from El Paso International Airport in Texas have been halted for \u201cspecial security reasons,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-462150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}