Holiday Lockdown Over Palm Beach — FAA Shuts Down 10 Miles of Airspace Near Mar-a-Lago Dec 20 Through Jan 4

When the President is expected to be at Mar-a-Lago, the federal government wants the airspace in and around Palm Beach locked down. That’s the plan for the holidays. It’s not always clear what the President’s plans will be – he may stay down there for some time, may return to D.C. and then go back, and the FAA doesn’t want to issue and reissue flight restrictions every time. So they have the airspace continuously locked down this season between December 20 and January 4.

Here’s the ‘TFR’ which basically closes an inner circle of 10 nautical miles (11.5 statute miles). If you’re in a private plane, you generally can’t fly in there at all, unless you’re going to West Palm Beach (Palm Beach International, PBI). And there are special rules.

• Everyone has to be treated like they’re boarding an airline flight, with security screening before you go.

  You pre-register, TSA checks IDs, passengers, bags and potentially the aircraft itself, and then you fly straight to PBI under ATC control.

• The notice requires TSA screening at a designated “gateway airport” before arriving at West Palm Beach during this restriction, and requires TSA screening there for departures. The five designated ‘Gateway Airports’ where aircraft can originate and have screening (or stop along the way for screening) are:
  • Westchester County (HPN)
    
  • Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
    
  • Teterboro Airport (TEB)
    
  • Ft. Lauderdale International Airport (FLL)
    
  • Orlando International Airport (MCO)

There’s also an outer circle (from 10 out to 30 nautical miles). You can fly, but only under tight air traffic control. You need an active flight plan, must talk to ATC, and must squawk a special transponder code they assign you. A lot of general aviatoin such as training and banner towing is not allowed while the restriction is active.

The TFR, by the way, has already been violated.

This morning, a NORAD F‑16 intercepted an aircraft that entered restricted airspace over Palm Beach. The situation was resolved safely.

Check NOTAMs before every flight and stay aware of active TFRs. #WeHaveTheWatch https://t.co/EDpzhrWgy0

— North American Aerospace Defense Command (@NORADCommand) December 21, 2025

Avoiding the TSA hassle requires private plans to land outside the 30 mile limit – such as Stuart, Fort Lauderdale Executive, or Opa-Locka – and drive to Palm Beach.

This doesn’t just affect private jets, but any passenger flight originating from a private terminal. All cargo flights following a Twelve Five Standard Security Program are permitted, but not passenger flights. So JSX flights from Westchester to Palm Beach aren’t permitted December 20 – January 4. It appears that what JSX is doing is re-routing this flight to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. E.g.

They’re still selling flights to Palm Beach, though, and I asked them about this.

A JSX spokesperson shares,

The effective dates and times for TFRs are subject to change and often unpredictable. When a JSX flight is moved to another airport in the area because of a Presidential TFR, our customers are notified and given the option to rebook for another day at no charge or to obtain a full refund if they choose not to fly to the diversion airport.

What I’d rather see is a warning during the booking flow that between December 20 and January 4, flights to Palm Beach may have to be re-routed due to a temporary presidential flight restriction. I’d still gladly fly JSX from Westchester to Fort Lauderdale Executive and drive! (And so would many others, hence the high price of those few seats that are still available for sale.)

JSX passengers go through screening at their departure terminal and it’s thorough, but it’s not done by TSA. They don’t operate from the commercial terminal at Westchester. Westchester is a gateway airport, but it’s apparently not possible to arrange TSA screening there for its Palm Beach flights. I’m not even sure which is worse, TSA or the re-route to Fort Lauderdale to be honest!

The President travels to Mar-a-Lago frequently, and flight restrictions are often put in place as a result. We’ve seen the same thing in other administrations. The FAA created flight restriction gateways for when President Biden was at his Delaware home and he spent around a quarter of his first two years in office there.

And the FAA created a prohibited area around President George W. Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch. That wasn’t a temporary flight restriction, either. Bush visited the ranch 77 times, spending about 490 days there over his two terms.

However, Mar-a-Lago sits near busy South Florida traffic flows and multiple airports, so each activation has significant collateral disruption compared to more rural Crawford, Texas.