Why?
From NYT:
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the temporary closure of airspace over El Paso on Wednesday morning, abruptly reversing course after grounding flights hours earlier for what officials said would be 10 days.
“There is no threat to commercial aviation,” the agency said on social media. “All flights will resume as normal.”
The brief shutdown was related to a test of new counter-drone technology by the military at Fort Bliss, a nearby Army base, according to a person briefed on the matter.
That is a ridiculous explanation from The Times. The NoTAMS went out at the last minute. People were stranded from connecting flights, hundreds of passengers showed up to a closed airport in the morning. American Airlines had to be informed by passengers who got cancelled trying to board flights. Any sort of test would require advance coordination and re routing of passengers. In addition, a 10 day closure? That seems unlikely for a test over civilian airspace.