Ninety-six years ago this month, William P. Hobby Airport began as a landing field in a 600-acre pasture. A black and white photograph taken in 1928, a year after the landing field opened, details the airport’s rural beginnings in a southeastern corner of the city. Here’s a look back at the history of Hobby Airport: 

1937 | The City of Houston purchased the facility and expanded it to 1,240 acres.  

1940 | The wooden terminal building was replaced with a permanent structure built in Art Deco style.  

The airport was briefly named Howard Hughes Airport before its name changed to the Houston Municipal Airport. The airport was served only by Braniff Airways and Eastern Airlines. During World War II it was a training site for the Women's Flying Training Detachment. By the end of the war the airport had paved runways, city-built hangars, installed a lighting system and four additional airlines had begun service.  

1948 | International flights began when Braniff included Houston on routes from Dallas to Central and South America.  

1950 | Pan American Airlines began direct service from Houston to Mexico City.  

1954 | The city renamed the airport Houston International Airport.  

1957 | KLM Dutch Airlines began direct flights between Houston and Amsterdam.  

The 1950s saw many additions and improvements made in keeping with the airport's international status, including expansion of the old terminal, construction of a new modern terminal, lengthened and strengthened runways capable of handling the new turbojet aircraft, several new hangars, and a high-intensity lighting system.   

As flight demand grew, so did the airport, and by the mid-1960s facility expansion included an additional terminal. 

1967 |The facility was named in honor of longtime Houston civic leader and Texas Governor William P. Hobby. 

When George Bush Intercontinental Airport opened in June 1969, Hobby Airport briefly shifted focus to general aviation service, but commercial flights returned to the facility in 1971. Steady growth and expansion began again. 

1998 | Houston Airports began a long-term capital improvement project that extensively renovated and expanded the terminal at Hobby Airport. Three existing concourses were demolished and replaced with a single, 25 gate Central Concourse capable of accommodating larger commercial aircraft.  

2004 | Rather than demolish the original 1940 Art Deco terminal building, which sat largely unused since the 1970s, the structure was renovated and reopened as the 1940 Air Terminal Museum. 

2015 | International air service returned to Hobby Airport 

2022 | Hobby Airport is rated as the first 5-Star airport in North America by Skytrax and is voted Best Regional Airport in North America at the World Airport Awards