William P. Hobby Airport , colloquially referred to as Houston Hobby Airport, is an international airport in the Greater Hobby neighborhood in Houston, Texas, located approximately from Houston city center. Hobby is Houston's oldest commercial airport, and was its primary airport until the Houston Intercontinental Airport, now known as the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, opened in 1969. Hobby was initially closed after the opening of Houston Intercontinental; however, it was re-opened after several years, and became a secondary airport for domestic airline service, and a center for corporate and private aviation.
Houston Hobby is an operating base for Southwest Airlines, which has international and domestic flights from HOU, and carries the vast majority of its passengers. , Houston Hobby is the fifth largest airport in Southwest's network. Southwest opened its first international terminal at Houston Hobby, and began service from Houston Hobby to Mexico and Central and South America on October 15, 2015.
The William P. Hobby Airport covers , and has three runways. Its original art deco terminal building, the first passenger airline terminal in Houston, now houses the 1940 Air Terminal Museum.
Hobby became the first 5-Star Airport in North America by Skytrax in 2022.
History
Hobby Airport opened in June 1927 as a private landing field in a pasture known as W.T. Carter Field. In the 1930s, it was served by Braniff International Airways and Eastern Air Lines. The site was acquired by the city of Houston and was named Houston Municipal Airport in 1937. The airport was renamed Howard R. Hughes Airport in 1938. Howard Hughes was responsible for several improvements to the airport, including its first control tower, built in 1938. The airport's name changed back to Houston Municipal because Hughes was still alive at the time and regulations did not allow federal improvement funds for an airport named after a living person.
The city of Houston opened a new air terminal and hangar in 1940.
Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in 1943 The first three Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) training classes were held at the Houston Municipal Airport in 1943.
Airlines in the 1940s and 1950s In June 1948, Braniff International Airways began international flights from Houston operated with Douglas DC-4 and DC-6s to South America via Cuba and Panama. In the June 1948 timetable, the airline had two flights a week to Havana, Cuba – Panama City, Panama (via Balboa, Canal Zone) – Guayaquil, Ecuador – Lima, Peru, and a third flight that skipped Guayaquil. In 1949, Braniff flew direct via Lima to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and La Paz, Bolivia. In 1950, Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) began nonstop Douglas DC-4 service to Mexico City. On October 1, 1950, Chicago and Southern Air Lines began flying new Lockheed Constellations nonstop to St. Louis and direct to Chicago Midway Airport. Chicago & Southern flew nonstop to New Orleans, the sole purpose being to connect to the airline's daily Douglas DC-4 "Caribbean Comet" flights between New Orleans and Havana, Cuba; Kingston, Jamaica, and Caracas, Venezuela, as Chicago & Southern did not then have local traffic rights between Houston and New Orleans. In 1953, Chicago & Southern (C&S) was acquired by and merged into Delta Air Lines, giving Delta access to Houston for the first time. In 1954, Delta, operating as "Delta C&S", was flying a daily Convair 340 Houston – New Orleans – Havana, Cuba – Port au Prince, Haiti – Ciudad Trujillo (now Santo Domingo), Dominican Republic – San Juan, Puerto Rico. Also in 1954, an expanded terminal building opened to support the 53,640 airline flights that carried 910,047 passengers. The airport was renamed Houston International Airport the same year.
The April 1957 Official Airline Guide lists 26 weekday departures on Eastern, 20 on Braniff (plus four departures a week to/from South America), nine on Continental Airlines, nine on Delta Air Lines, nine on Trans-Texas Airways, four on National Airlines, two on Pan American World Airways and one on American Airlines. There were nonstops to New York City and Washington, D.C., but not to Chicago or Denver or anywhere west of Colorado. Later in 1957, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines started Douglas DC-7C flights to Amsterdam via Montreal. In 1958, Delta was operating daily nonstop Douglas DC-7s to New York City and weekly DC-7s direct to Caracas, Venezuela, via New Orleans (Delta called this latter service the "El Petrolero") while Eastern Douglas DC-7s and Lockheed Constellations flew nonstop to New York City.
The jet age arrives Houston's first scheduled jets were Delta Douglas DC-8s nonstop to New York in December 1959 (Cearley says they began on December 1). Braniff International introduced Boeing 707s in April 1960, nonstop to Dallas Love Field and direct to Chicago O'Hare Airport; Braniff Lockheed L-188 Electra propjets flew nonstop to Chicago Midway Airport and Dallas Love Field, and direct to Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City and Lubbock. In June 1960, Eastern Airlines Douglas DC-8s flew nonstop to New York City Idlewild Airport and to Atlanta, in addition to Lockheed L-188 Electras nonstop to Washington, D.C. National Airport with one-stop Electras to Newark. In July 1960, KLM introduced Douglas DC-8 flights to Amsterdam via Montreal before moving to Houston Intercontinental Airport (now George Bush Intercontinental Airport), where they remain today with nonstop Boeing 787 flights to Amsterdam. On May 15, 1960, Delta Air Lines operated the world's first Convair 880 scheduled passenger flight nonstop to New York City Idlewild Airport from Hobby. Delta would introduce Convair 880 flights nonstop to Chicago O'Hare Airport, St. Louis and New Orleans from Houston in addition to its service to New York City.
In June 1961, National Airlines Douglas DC-8s and Continental 707s began flying nonstop to Los Angeles, and National Electras flew nonstop to Las Vegas, San Diego and San Francisco. These were Houston's first nonstops beyond El Paso. In 1963, Continental Vickers Viscounts operated a "milk run" multi-stop service on a routing of Houston-Austin-San Angelo-Midland/Odessa-El Paso-Tucson-Phoenix-Los Angeles while Continental Viscounts also flew direct to Lubbock and Amarillo. In summer 1965, American Airlines only had one jet flight a day from Hobby, a Boeing 707 flying Houston-San Antonio-El Paso-Phoenix-Oakland-San Francisco. Eastern Boeing 727-100s flew nonstop to Washington D.C. Dulles Airport, New Orleans and Corpus Christi and direct to New York Newark Airport and Boston. Eastern Boeing 720s flew nonstop to New York JFK Airport, Atlanta, New Orleans and San Antonio and direct to Boston and Philadelphia. By 1966, Houston-based Trans-Texas Airways (TTa) had introduced Douglas DC-9-10s with nonstop flights to Dallas Love Field, Corpus Christi and Baton Rouge and direct to New Orleans. In 1966, Braniff was operating flights via interchange agreements with both Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) and United Airlines from Hobby. The service with Pan Am flew to London, England, and Frankfurt, Germany, daily with Boeing 707s via at Dallas Love Field and Chicago O'Hare Airport. The joint operation with United was flown with Boeing 720s twice daily Houston-Dallas-Denver-Seattle and Houston-Dallas-Denver-Portland, OR-Seattle. The same year, Braniff BAC One-Elevens flew nonstop to Dallas Love Field, Fort Worth (via Greater Southwest International Airport), Tulsa and Corpus Christi and direct to Chicago O'Hare Airport, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis and Wichita.
In 1967, the airport was renamed after a former Texas governor, William P. Hobby.
Besides the Braniff/Pan Am and KLM services to Europe, the airport had other long flights: Braniff was flying nonstop from Hobby to Panama City, Panama, with Boeing 707s and Boeing 720s in the late 1960s. Braniff's April 1969 timetable lists nonstop 707 service to Hawaii; however, Braniff flights from Houston to Hawaii did not actually start until September 1, after the move to IAH.George W. Cearley, Braniff 1965-1986
Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH), now George Bush Intercontinental Airport, opened in June 1969; the airlines moved to Intercontinental and Hobby was left with no scheduled passenger service. The Civil Aeronautics Administration recommended years earlier that Houston plan to replace Hobby.
International service in the 1960s Previously, KLM and Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) operated international flights from the International Building at Hobby until the late 1960s. In 1966, Pan Am was operating a daily Boeing 707 flight nonstop to Mexico City with continuing, no change of plane service to Guatemala City, Guatemala; San Salvador, El Salvador; Managua, Nicaragua; San José, Costa Rica; and Panama City, Panama. In 1969, both airlines moved to IAH and the International Building was demolished. Braniff International operated international service as well from the airport and in the spring of 1966 was operating nonstop Boeing 707 and Boeing 720 jet service twice a week to Panama City, Panama, with connections in Panama to other Braniff flights to South America. Also in 1966, Braniff was operating a joint international service via an interchange agreement with Pan Am to London, England, and Frankfurt, Germany, on a daily basis with Boeing 707 jetliners via intermediate stops at Dallas Love Field and Chicago O'Hare Airport. Aeronaves de Mexico (now Aeromexico) served Hobby as well with flights to Mexico and in the spring of 1968 was operating Douglas DC-9-10 jet service nonstop to Monterrey with continuing, no change of plane service several days a week to Guadalajara and Acapulco. Trans-Texas Airways also served Mexico and in 1968 was operating direct, no change of plane service from Hobby with Convair 600 turboprops eleven times a week to Monterrey and six times a week to Tampico and Veracruz via south Texas.
Resumption of airline service The first airline to resume passenger flights was Houston Metro Airlines, a commuter airline, which in early 1970 was flying "cross town" service with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters between Hobby and Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) with 14 weekday round trips.
Jet airline service resumed on November 14, 1971, when Southwest Airlines operating as an intrastate airline began nonstop Boeing 737-200s to Dallas Love Field (DAL) and San Antonio (Southwest had initially launched service between Intercontinental Airport and Dallas Love Field before serving Hobby). Both Braniff International and Texas International resumed jet service into Hobby with nonstops to Dallas in competition with Southwest.
By fall 1979, Braniff and Texas International had ceased serving Hobby, however, two other jet airlines, Hughes Airwest and Ozark Air Lines, had joined Southwest at the airport, with Southwest operating Boeing 727-200s as well as 737-200s nonstop to Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas Love Field, Harlingen, Lubbock, San Antonio and its first destination outside Texas, New Orleans. Hughes Airwest (owned by Howard Hughes) was flying nonstop to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson and direct to Burbank (now Bob Hope Airport) and Orange County (now John Wayne Airport) while Ozark was flying nonstop to its hub in St. Louis; both airlines flew McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s. Hughes Airwest was acquired by and merged into Republic Airlines which in 1983 had a focus city operation at Hobby with McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s, DC-9-50s and MD-80s nonstop to Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Detroit, Las Vegas, Memphis, New Orleans and Phoenix. By 1984, another airline flew nonstop Hobby to St. Louis: Air 1 Boeing 727-100s. A number of commuter airlines were flying from Hobby to smaller cities in Texas and Louisiana, including Chaparral Airlines, Commutair, Eagle Commuter, Hammonds Air Service, Metroplex Airlines and Tejas Airlines.