The FAA’s “10 days closed” alert stunned El Paso — and then it vanished

EL PASO, Texas — Air travelers were stranded and medical evacuation flights were disrupted after the Federal Aviation Administration abruptly announced it was shutting down El Paso International Airport for 10 days — an extraordinary step for a single airport — before the agency reversed course about eight hours later and lifted the shutdown early Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The episode detonated online because it hit a nerve: people already feel like air travel is one mechanical failure away from chaos, and the idea of a 10-day closure at a commercial airport sounded like something out of a disaster movie. It also raised immediate questions about coordination between the FAA and the Pentagon — because, as Reuters reported, a U.S. senator said the incident pointed to a “real problem” in how agencies coordinate.

Tthe original FAA move was unprecedented in its scope for a single airport, and the fast reversal intensified confusion. When passengers hear “shutdown,” they think safety crisis. When it’s reversed in hours, they think either the threat wasn’t real — or the process was sloppy. Either way, it undermines confidence, which is why this story generated so much reaction in travel circles and local Texas media.

Details on the exact trigger for the planned 10-day shutdown were still being debated in the Reuters reporting, but the central fact remains: the FAA publicly signaled a major operational disruption, and then backed off quickly. That kind of whiplash is exactly what lawmakers seize on, because it suggests policy decisions are being made with incomplete interagency alignment.

For El Paso, the near-term impact was immediate: delayed flights, disrupted schedules, and uncertainty for travelers trying to rebook — plus the special concern of medical flights that rely on predictable access. For federal agencies, the bigger issue is credibility: if the FAA is willing to announce a dramatic closure and then reverse course the same night, lawmakers are going to ask who signed off, who objected, and why the public message changed so fast.

The senator’s warning, is that the incident exposed cracks in FAA-Pentagon coordination — a sensitive topic given how often civilian airports share airspace, runways, or operational constraints with military activity.