U.S. Navy Blue Angels return to El Paso for winter visit ahead of October air show
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The U.S. Navy Blue Angels arrived in El Paso on Wednesday for a winter visit as crews begin planning for their highly anticipated air show scheduled for October.
The elite flight demonstration squadron last performed in El Paso in 2011. Fifteen years later, the Blue Angels are returning ahead of the Oct. 2026 air show at Fort Bliss, part of a milestone year marking the team’s 80th anniversary.
Blue Angels Blue Angels #7 Announcer, Lieutenant Ronny Hafeza, and #8 Event Coordinator, Commander Lilly Montana, will landed at Million Air El Paso earlier in the day. While the public show is still months away, team members are spending the day coordinating logistics, surveying the flight line and organizing community outreach efforts, including visits to local schools.
During planning visits, the Blue Angels typically work closely with host installations and cities to ensure safety, coordinate airspace and engage with the community.
Fort Bliss Garrison Commander Col. Michael Soyka said the upcoming event highlights the strong partnership between Fort Bliss and the city of El Paso.
“For us, this community is a joint community. It’s about El Paso and Fort Bliss together,” Soyka said. “What this does is bring hopefully about 100,000 folks over the course of two days onto Fort Bliss from our community. We want to share the wonderful things about Fort Bliss with the El Paso community, and we want to be able to bring something absolutely awesome and entertaining to this entire community.”
The October show is expected to draw large crowds and will mark one of the Blue Angels’ signature appearances during their anniversary season.
