Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025
Fact check: Has El Paso International Airport issued delay notices due to the government shutdown?
No delay notices have been issued by El Paso International Airport or its regional controlling facility, the Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center, between Oct. 1 and Nov. 4, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center issues advisories and tracks them on its Notice to Air Missions database. The Albuquerque center oversees airspace across New Mexico and West Texas, including El Paso.
The command center lists ground-stop and staffing advisories, with El Paso-area advisories under the FAA code “ZAB,” for Zone Albuquerque. The air missions’ database shows airport-specific notices. Neither contain notices for El Paso.
The FAA on Nov. 5, 2025, said it’s reducing flights at 40 major U.S. airports starting Nov. 7, 2025. El Paso’s not among them but may see indirect impacts.
Airports nationwide have reported delays linked to staffing shortages since the government shutdown Oct. 1, the AP reports.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center Airport delay notices
- FAA Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) search
- FAA Delay Status
- Associated Press Government shutdown impacts air traffic controllers
- Associated Press FAA cuts flights at 40 major U.S. airports
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.
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