El Paso Airport Webcam – Watch Runway 8R/26L From the Tower

The El Paso Airport Webcam looks out over the airfield at El Paso International from a camera mounted high on the airport’s air traffic control tower in far West Texas. Runway 8R/26L runs left to right across the middle distance, with taxiways, the corporate ramp and open Chihuahuan Desert scrub between the camera and the pavement. The operator can pan and zoom, so the framing changes through the day: a wide shot of the airfield at one moment, a tight view of the general aviation hangars or the passenger terminal at the next. When the air is clear, low desert mountains stand along the skyline behind the field.

About El Paso International Airport

El Paso International Airport, ELP to passengers and KELP to pilots, sits about 11 kilometers (7 miles) northeast of downtown. The field covers 2,699 hectares (6,670 acres) at an elevation of 1,207 meters (3,962 feet), high enough that summer departures need noticeably more runway than they would at sea level. The City of El Paso owns it and the El Paso Aviation Department runs it.

Three runways cross the site. The longest, 4/22, measures 3,664 by 46 meters (12,020 by 150 feet). Runway 8R/26L, the strip this camera was set up to watch, is the asphalt middle sibling, and the short concrete parallel 8L/26R runs 1,670 by 23 meters (5,499 by 75 feet) and takes most of the light aircraft. Passenger traffic slipped in 2025 after a record 2024, and Southwest carries more of it than every other airline combined.

The airport grew out of a trade. El Paso built its first municipal airfield near the east side of the Franklin Mountains in 1928, while Standard Airlines laid out a separate field called Standard Airport in 1929 to fly transcontinental air mail. American Airlines and the city swapped airports in 1936. One resident makes the ramp worth a second look: NASA bases its Super Guppy Turbine, registration N941NA, at a forward operating location here. It is the last of four Super Guppies still flying, built in 1958 as a KC-97 and bought from Airbus in 1997, and its bulbous cargo hull is unmistakable when the camera swings across the parking ramp.

Weather and Climate in El Paso

This is high Chihuahuan Desert, and the camera shows it: hard sun, sharp shadows and very few grey days. Winters are mild and dry, January averaging 13.5 C (56 F) by day and 1.2 C (34 F) overnight. Spring warms fast, April reaching 26.4 C (80 F), but it is also the windy season, and blowing dust can flatten the far end of the runway into a brown haze for hours.

June is the hottest month at 35.6 C (96 F), with July close behind and nights that stay near 23 C (74 F). Rain arrives with the North American monsoon from July into September, when tall cumulus builds through the afternoon and August alone brings about 45 millimeters (1.8 inches). The whole year delivers only around 213 millimeters (8.4 inches), so standing water on the ramp is rare and short lived. October settles back to 26.0 C (79 F) with the clearest air of the year, which is when the horizon shows up best.

Things to Do Near El Paso International Airport

Franklin Mountains State Park begins about 16 kilometers (10 miles) west of the runway and covers 9,812 hectares (24,247 acres) entirely inside the city limits, which makes it the largest urban park in the United States. North Franklin Peak tops out at 2,192 meters (7,192 feet), roughly 900 meters (3,000 feet) above the streets below. Scenic Drive, a mountainside road of about 3 kilometers (2 miles) cut into the southern end of the same range, is the quickest way to see El Paso and Ciudad Juarez laid out as one continuous grid of lights.

Closer in, the El Paso Zoo is 7.4 kilometers (4.6 miles) away and keeps more than 220 species, including a Chihuahuan Desert section with javelinas and mountain lions. Southwest University Park, 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) off downtown, opened in 2014 and is home to the El Paso Chihuahuas, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. For the border story itself, Chamizal National Memorial sits 8.4 kilometers (5.2 miles) southwest of the field and marks the 1963 treaty that settled a dispute the two countries had argued over for a century.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is El Paso International Airport located?

In far West Texas, on the northeast side of El Paso and roughly 13 kilometers (8 miles) from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, across the Rio Grande.

What can you see on the El Paso Airport Webcam?

The default framing takes in runway 8R/26L, the taxiways and the corporate ramp, with desert scrub in the foreground and distant hills on the skyline. Because the camera pans and zooms, it also visits the terminal gates, the rows of general aviation T-hangars and the wider city.

Which runway does the El Paso Airport Webcam show?

The airport lists the feed as the runway 8R/26L camera. That runway is 2,751 meters (9,025 feet) long and runs almost due east to west, which puts it across the frame rather than pointing away from the camera.

What is the weather like in El Paso?

Hot and dry. Summer afternoons average about 35.5 C (96 F) and January about 13.5 C (56 F), with most of the year’s modest rainfall arriving between July and September.

How busy is El Paso International Airport?

It handled 94,499 aircraft movements and 3,838,968 passengers in 2025, roughly 260 takeoffs and landings a day. Quiet stretches are normal, so several minutes between movements is expected rather than a sign of a frozen stream.

Which airlines fly from El Paso International Airport?

Southwest Airlines is the largest at just under 53 percent of passengers and American Airlines next at about 14 percent, with the rest split between other mainline carriers and their regional partners.

Why does NASA keep a Super Guppy in El Paso?

Humid, salty coastal air near Houston was corroding the airframe, so NASA moved the outsize cargo aircraft inland to the dry desert, where it flies from a forward operating location on the field.

Source: El Paso International Airport