William P. Hobby Airport
Houston · United States · America/Chicago
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Regional Hub
Calculated from destination count, airline diversity, and haul-mix coverage. More signals (customs/border access, ground handling capacity) will be added as the dataset grows.
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ATC Frequencies9
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Live Departures & Arrivals36
Source: adsb.lol — community ADS-B network. Approximate local traffic within 40nm, not a definitive schedule.
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Airline Records in Dataset9
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Airport HistoryEst. 1927
Houston's original commercial airport opened in 1927 as a private landing field before the city acquired it a decade later, and it has carried four different names over its history before settling on William P. Hobby Airport in 1967, honoring the former Texas governor. Long overshadowed after Houston Intercontinental (now George Bush Intercontinental) opened in 1969, Hobby found new life as Southwest Airlines' home base starting in 1971 and, after adding an international terminal in 2015, became the first airport in North America to receive a Skytrax 5-Star rating.
A private landing field opens in June 1927 on a 600-acre pasture known as W.T. Carter Field, soon serving airlines including Braniff International Airways and Eastern Air Lines.
The City of Houston acquires the field and renames it Houston Municipal Airport.
The airport is renamed Houston International Airport and gains an expanded terminal supporting over 900,000 annual passengers.
The airport is renamed a final time after former Texas governor William P. Hobby, the name it retains today.
Southwest Airlines starts jet service on November 14, 1971, flying Boeing 737-200s as an intrastate Texas carrier; the airline goes on to become Hobby's dominant carrier and establishes its operating base there.
A modernized Central Concourse with 25 gates replaces three older concourses dating to the 1950s.
Southwest Airlines opens its first international terminal at Hobby in October 2015 with five gates, enabling flights to Mexico and Central and South America.
Hobby becomes the first airport in North America to receive Skytrax's 5-Star Airport rating.
A $470 million expansion project begins in November 2024, planning to add seven new gates by 2027.
General encyclopedic sources (Wikipedia). Passenger totals (approximately 13.9 million in 2025) reflect year-end reporting available as of research date.