US authorities have withdrawn a 10-day airspace closure notice for El Paso airport, only a short time after it was imposed – apparently as a precaution against cartel drone incursions.
The closure had comprised two airspace zones on the Mexican border, one of which was a circle of 10nm radius centred on the El Paso airport VORTAC beacon.
While the FAA says this closure “has been lifted”, a second closure affecting a trapezoidal region of airspace lying to the west of El Paso appears still to be in effect.
The FAA, in a temporary flight restriction notice for 11-21 February, had stated that aircraft operations within both zones were prohibited below an altitude of 18,000ft.
It has not elaborated on the airspace ban, beyond stating that it was imposed for “special security reasons”.
But US transportation secretary Sean Duffy says the government ”acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion”.
”The threat has been neutralised, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region,” he adds. ”The restrictions have been lifted and normal flights are resuming.”
It remains unclear why such a long closure period was implemented, given that it was reversed within a few hours.
El Paso airport annually handles around 4 million passengers.
Several major US carriers operate from El Paso include United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Frontier Airlines.
