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William P. Hobby Airport in Houston operates as a major base for Southwest Airlines and is among Texas's busiest airports. It is served by eight airlines offering flights to over 80 destinations, with nearly 15 million passengers last year. The airport, nearing a century of operations, originally opened in 1927 as a private airfield on a 600-acre pasture. By the early 1930s, Braniff International Airways and Eastern Air Lines were serving it. The city acquired it in 1938, naming it Howard Hughes Airport, but it was quickly renamed Houston Municipal Airport to qualify for federal improvement funds.
Post-war, Houston Hobby saw rapid growth in airlines and routes, especially toward Latin America and the Caribbean. Braniff International Airways began international flights in 1948; Pan Am started flights to Mexico in 1950; and Delta Air Lines began Caribbean routes. KLM offered the first transatlantic flights in 1957. By the 1950s' end, the airport served over a million passengers annually.
In the 1960s, Delta Air Lines initiated jet service with its Douglas DC-8 to New York. The airport was renamed after former Texas governor William P. Hobby in 1967. With the opening of a new international airport in 1969, all commercial airlines moved there, leaving Houston Hobby without scheduled passenger service.
