Houston's first commercial airport reaches 90th anniversary

William P. Hobby Airport reached anniversary earlier in June

HOUSTON – Houston's first commercial airport, William P. Hobby Airport, reached its 90th anniversary earlier in June.

First being utilized as a private airfield in 1927, airport officials said the city purchased the facility in 1937 and expanded it to 1,240 acres. It opened as the city's first commercial airport a year later with its very own control tower.

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It was known then as Howard Hughes Airport and was served only by Braniff Airways and Eastern Airlines. Airport officials said the name was eventually changed to Houston Municipal Airport, and its wooden structure was replaced by a more permanent building.

The facility was used during World War II as a training site for the Women's Flying Training Detachment, along with its commercial operations, airport officials said. By the end of the war, it had paved runways, city-built hangars and a lighting system. Four additional airlines had begun service.

Airport officials said it was a short time later that the first international flight service began, which prompted a change of name to Houston International Airport in 1954.

The 1950s saw an expansion of the old terminal, construction of a new modern terminal, lengthened and strengthened runways capable of handling the new turbojet aircraft, new hangars and a high-intensity lighting system. Airport officials said that by the mid-1960s, facility expansion included an additional terminal and, in 1967, the facility was named in honor of longtime Houston civic leader and Texas Gov. William P. Hobby.

Hobby Airport briefly shifted focus to general aviation service when George Bush Intercontinental Airport opened in 1969, but commercial flights returned to the facility in 1971, airport officials said.

The airport boasts an expanded and modern terminal complex today with a new Federal Inspection Services facility to accommodate the return of international air service to the airport in 2015. Airport officials said nearly 13 million passengers traveled through Hobby Airport in 2016, including more than 800,000 international passengers in the first full year of international air service there.

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