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72-654: William P. Hobby Airport ( IATA : HOU , ICAO : KHOU , FAA LID : HOU ) — colloquially referred to as Houston Hobby or other short names — is an international airport in Houston , Texas , located 7 mi (11 km) from downtown Houston . 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

144-858: 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

216-488: A "dual hub" operation in Houston with a hub at Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and a second hub at Hobby. In February 1987, Continental had nonstops from Hobby to Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York LaGuardia Airport , San Antonio and Washington D.C. National Airport . Nonstop "cross town" shuttle service was also being flown between HOU and IAH with Douglas DC-9-10s by Emerald Air operating as

288-526: A new Denver route starting in September. William P. Hobby Airport has a single terminal with two concourses (one domestic and one international) and 30 overall gates. The domestic concourse, which has various retail shops and restaurants, opened in 2003 and replaced the original three concourses, which dated back to the 1950s. It also includes an interfaith chapel . The international concourse opened on October 15, 2015. In February 2020, Hobby Airport became

360-550: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

432-704: A petition. Southwest also started a website just for supporters of international flights from Hobby, freehobbyairport.com. United Airlines, Houston's other major carrier, which would later be forced to compete with Southwest on proposed international routes, has objected to the expansion plans, citing a study which concludes that the change would cost the Houston area jobs and result in a net reduction in GRP. Houston Mayor Annise Parker backed Southwest's fight to make Hobby an international airport on May 23, 2012. On May 30, 2012, Houston's city council approved Southwest's request for international flights from Hobby. The groundbreaking of

504-494: A revised design—the Model 240. This had a longer but thinner fuselage than the Model 110, accommodating 40 passengers in the first pressurized, twin-engined airliner. The 240 first flew on March 16, 1947. The Model 240 was followed by the Model 340, which had a longer fuselage, longer-span wings, and more powerful engines. The 340 first flew on October 5, 1951. In 1954, in an attempt to compete with turboprop -powered airliners such as

576-407: A total of 75 to American—and another 50 to Western Airlines , Continental Airlines , Pan American Airways , Lufthansa , KLM , Swissair , Sabena , and Trans Australia Airlines . A CV-240 was the first private aircraft used in a United States presidential campaign. In 1960, John F. Kennedy used a CV-240 named Caroline (after his daughter) during his campaign. This aircraft is now preserved in

648-438: A ventral airstair for passenger boarding. The prototype Model 110, registration NX90653, first flew on July 8, 1946. By this time, American Airlines had changed the requirements to include pressurization and deemed the design too small. Convair used the first prototype for 240 series development work before it had the plane broken up in 1947. To meet the requirements of airlines for a pressurized airliner, Convair produced

720-499: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

792-403: Is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3 . Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization , the 240 series made some inroads as a commercial airliner, and had a long development cycle that produced various civil and military variants. Though reduced in numbers by attrition, various forms of

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864-600: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

936-518: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1008-650: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

1080-439: Is held 20 feet (6.1 m) above the ground by three steel tree trunks. The nest is depicted floating above a subtropical garden. The artists created the work to depict the spirit of Houston's industrial force along the coastal plain . "Take-off" is located at Hobby's Broadway Street entrance. The Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center serves as the airport's ARTCC . IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

1152-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1224-532: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1296-465: 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 1,304 acres (528 ha), and has three runways. Its original art deco terminal building, the first passenger airline terminal in Houston, now houses

1368-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

1440-536: The 1940 Air Terminal Museum . Hobby became the first 5-Star Airport in North America by Skytrax in 2022. Hobby Airport opened in June 1927 as a private landing field in a 600-acre (240 ha) 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

1512-561: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

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1584-653: The National Air and Space Museum . After aborted negotiations with TWA and Eastern for "Super 240" orders, Convair temporarily halted 240 series production. In response to a United inquiry, Convair redesigned the Super 240, calling it the CV-340. United ordered 55, and more US orders came from Braniff, Continental, Delta, Northeast, and National. Other orders came from abroad, and the CV-340 was popular in South America. The CV-340 earned

1656-497: The Vickers Viscount , Convair produced the Model 440 Metropolitan, with more streamlined cowlings, new engine exhausts, and better cabin soundproofing. As the "Super 240" evolved into the CV-340 and CV-440, the design reached the limit of piston-engine performance, and future development centered on conversion to turboprop power. Convair delivered the first production Convairliner to American on February 29, 1948. They delivered

1728-420: The " Convairliners " continue to fly in the 21st century. The design began with a requirement by American Airlines for an airliner to replace its Douglas DC-3s . Convair's original design, the unpressurised Model 110, was a twin-engine, low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, with 30 seats. It was powered by Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engines . It had a tricycle landing gear , and

1800-411: The "Houston Proud Express" or Continental with these flights using "CO" flight numbers with seven round trips a day. CO one-stops flew from Hobby to Bozeman, MT, Orlando, Sacramento and Tucson. Continental was operating up to 37 departures a day from HOU with Boeing 727-100s , 727-200s , 737-200s , 737-300s , Douglas DC-9-10s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s . The airline shut down its hub at Hobby and

1872-447: The 1980s. Several other airlines were based at the airport in the past as well, including Pioneer Air Lines and Trans-Texas Airways ( TTa ) with the latter then changing its name to Texas International Airlines . Trans-Texas followed by Texas International operated a hub at the airport as well. Pioneer and Texas International merged with Continental Airlines , Pioneer in 1955 and Texas International in 1982. Continental continued to use

1944-887: The Houston Municipal Airport in 1943. 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,

2016-536: 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

2088-459: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Convair 340 10 (Canadair) The Convair CV-240

2160-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

2232-420: The aforementioned "Houston Proud Express" with DC-9s between HOU and IAH), the original Frontier Airlines , Muse Air , People Express , Republic Airlines and TranStar Airlines . Alaska Airlines also served Hobby in 1990 via an interchange agreement with American Airlines which enabled direct Boeing 727-200s to Anchorage and Fairbanks via Dallas/Ft. Worth and Seattle. At one point, Continental Airlines

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2304-640: The airport and Eastwood Transit Center via the Magnolia Park Transit Center . 73 Bellfort, which runs up to a 12 minute frequency during weekday, runs between the airport and Fannin South Transit Center, connecting to the Metro Rail Red Line. 88 Sagemont runs between the airport and San Jacinto College South Campus. Courtesy vans are operated by various hotels and motels in and around the Houston area. There are courtesy telephones in

2376-629: 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

2448-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

2520-508: 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 didn't actually start until September 1, after

2592-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

2664-413: 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

2736-450: The baggage claim area. Taxis are available at Curb Zone 2. Lyft and Uber are available at Curb Zone 5. There are several artistic pieces located in and on the William P. Hobby Airport grounds. Artists Paul Kittleson and Carter Ernst created "Take-off," a stainless steel bird's nest showing interwoven branches created using industrial materials. The nest is 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and

2808-467: The baggage claim areas to request pickup for most hotels and motels. Shared-ride shuttle service was available at HOU until 2019 when SuperShuttle (now Transdev ) ceased business, citing competition from ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft . Additionally, regularly scheduled bus and shuttle service is provided by various carriers to locations from HOU to areas outside metropolitan Houston and to Galveston and College Station. These services can be found in

2880-491: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

2952-484: The discretion of the Houston Airport System. The project is expected to take five years. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas , or METRO, stops at Curb Zone 3 at the airport. Currently, there are four bus lines that serve Hobby Airport. 40 Telephone/Heights provides local service to Eastwood Transit Center, Downtown, and North Shepard Park and Ride. 50 Broadway also provides service between

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3024-919: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

3096-491: The first airport in Texas to have full biometric entry and exit for passengers who are traveling internationally. In March 2022, Southwest announced a $ 250 million expansion project to add seven gates to Hobby's west concourse. The city of Houston is contributing $ 20 million toward the project. Six of the gates will be used exclusively by Southwest for domestic flights. The seventh new gate will be available for use by other airlines at

3168-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

3240-426: 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

3312-534: The flight to New York continuing on a direct one stop, no change of plane basis to Bermuda . In the fall of 1991, the OAG listed main line flights to Hobby on American Airlines , Delta Air Lines , Northwest Airlines , Trans World Airlines ( TWA ) and United Airlines in addition to Southwest. Other airlines jets at Hobby in the 1980s included Air Florida , Braniff , Eastern Air Lines , Emerald Air (operating independently and also on behalf of Continental Airlines as

3384-474: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

3456-593: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

3528-482: The former Texas International maintenance base at Hobby after the merger. In May 2011, Southwest Airlines expressed interest in initiating new international flights from Hobby. On April 9, 2012, Houston Director of Aviation Mario Diaz announced support of international flights from Hobby after multiple studies of the economic impact on the entire city of Houston. On this day Southwest Airlines also debuted its new campaign, called Free Hobby. Supporters are asked to sign

3600-482: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

3672-504: The move to IAH. (Hobby's 7600-ft runways would have been too short for 707 nonstop service to Hawaii.) 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. Previously, KLM and Pan American World Airways ( Pan Am ) operated international flights from

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3744-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

3816-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

3888-501: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

3960-589: 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

4032-462: The security checkpoint and Southwest Airlines ' check-in counter. Vertical construction was officially completed on October 15, 2015, and Southwest launched international flights that same day. Frontier Airlines announced its entry to the airport with direct flights to Cancun , Las Vegas , and Orlando starting in May 2022. Just two months later Frontier Airlines announced a fourth flight from Hobby with

4104-406: 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

4176-474: 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. The first airline to resume passenger flights

4248-497: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

4320-404: The terminal expansion began in September 2013. Five new gates (two arrival/departure gates and three arrival only gates) were added to accommodate both Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 family aircraft. The expansion was estimated to have cost $ 156 million and was paid for by Southwest Airlines . The expansion also included constructing a new parking garage as well as a re-organization and expansion of

4392-504: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

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4464-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

4536-568: 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

4608-905: 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

4680-460: Was acquired by Southwest Airlines ) were at the airport. Muse Air followed by TranStar operated a hub at Hobby flying McDonnell Douglas MD-80s , DC-9-50s and DC-9-30s nonstop to Austin, Brownsville, TX, Dallas Love Field, Las Vegas, Los Angeles ( LAX ), Lubbock, Ontario, CA, McAllen, TX, Miami, Midland/Odessa, New Orleans, Orlando, San Antonio, San Francisco, Tampa and Tulsa with direct service to San Diego and San Jose, CA at various times during

4752-772: 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. In 1987, Continental Airlines had

4824-430: 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. As of December 2017, Houston Hobby

4896-438: Was not serving the airport by the early 1990s although its regional affiliate Continental Express would return with "cross town" turboprop flights to IAH by the mid 1990s followed later by limited Continental mainline jet service. Also in 1987, Pan Am was once again serving Hobby with daily nonstop Boeing 727-200 and Boeing 737-200 service from the airport to Miami, New York JFK Airport and Washington Dulles Airport with

4968-475: Was operating Boeing 737-300s between Hobby and Houston Intercontinental and flying nonstop HOU to its Newark hub. In 2008 the airport handled 8.8 million passengers. Only domestic US destinations and international destinations with border preclearance were being served, but in fall 2015 Southwest opened a new international terminal allowing it to fly to foreign cities. The headquarters for TranStar Airlines (formerly Muse Air before this new start up air carrier

5040-1351: 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. 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

5112-701: 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,

5184-521: 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. The first three Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) training classes were held at

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