William P. Hobby Airport

A Legacy of Private Aviation

Hobby Airport opened in 1927 as a private landing field. The site was acquired by the City of Houston in 1937 and named Houston Municipal Airport. A year later, it was renamed the Howard R. Hughes Airport, as Howard Hughes had been critical in making several improvements to the airport. However, they had to revert to the original name as federal improvement funds could not be given to an airport named after a living person (per rules and regulations). In 1943, the first three Women Airforce Service Pilots training classes were held at the airport. In 1948 Braniff International Airways began international service from HOU to South America via Cuba and Panama. In 1950, Pan Am World Airways began flying nonstop to Mexico City. That same year, Chicago and Southern Airlines (C&S) began flying direct to St. Louis and Chicago. In 1953 C&S was merged into Delta Airlines, which gave them access to the airport. In 1954 an expanded terminal opened that could service 53,640 airline flights, and the airport was renamed Houston International Airport. In 1957 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines started flights to Amsterdam via Montreal. In December 1959, the first jet flights to New York from Houston began via Delta Douglas DC-8s. Boing 707's were introduced by Braniff International in 1960. Lockheed L-188 Electra propjets also went into use around that time. In 1960 Delta operated the first Convair 880 passenger flight from HOU nonstop to New York City. The '60s saw the continued increase of airlines adding routes to Houston. In 1967, the airport was renamed after former Texas governor William P. Hobby. In June 1969, Houston Intercontinental Airport, also known as HIA (now George Bush Intercontinental Airport), opened, and the airlines moved their flights there. At that point in time, there were no more regularly scheduled flights from HOU. In 1970, service resumed. At first, it was only commuter flights to IAH by Houston Metro Airlines. On November 14, 1971 Southwest Airlines resumed service with intrastate flights to Dallas and San Antonio. In order to compete with Southwest, Braniff and Houston International resumed service to HOU as well. The latter two airlines had left the airport by 1979 but were replaced by Hughes Airwest and Ozark Air Lines. They were joined by several commuter airlines flying to Hobby from smaller cities in Texas and Louisiana. In 1987 Continental Airlines had a "dual hub" in both Houston airports, with one at IAH and one at HOU. That same year, Pan Am resumed service at HOU. By the fall of 1991, there were mainline flights to HOU by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and Trans World Airlines (TWA). In addition to Southwest, several other smaller carriers were operating from the airport. In 2011 Southwest expressed interest in operating international flights from HOU. They promptly began a public lobbying campaign to generate pressure on the City of Houston, citing economic growth for the city as the primary reason to act. Despite opposition from United, HOU's other major carrier, Houston's city council approved the measure on May 30, 2012, after Houston Mayor Annise Parker voiced support for Southwest's initiative. This necessitated an expansion of the terminal, with five new gates added that could support both a Boing 737 and an Airbus 320. Southwest Air Lines paid an estimated $156 million for the expansion, including a new parking garage and the security checkpoint expansion. The Southwest check-in counter was also expanded, and international flights resumed on October 15, 2015, the day the expansion was completed. In May 2022, Frontier Airlines announced that it would begin using the airport. In February 2020, HOU became the first Texas airport to have full biometric entry and exit for international travelers.