Some $156 million is being spent by Southwest Airlines to do up the previously domesticated Hobby Airport into this shapely international hub. In February, city council approved a kind of build-to-suit agreement that would allow Southwest to add 5 gates to its terminal on the west side of the airport for international flights — Mayor Parker said at the time that she was even considering adding that adjective to ol’ Hobby’s name — as well as introduce a customs inspection hub, redo the roadways to and from, and add a 2,500-space parking garage.
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This, then, must be the view of what you’ll see as you come in for a landing. That white obtuse angle in the rendering immediately above shows the new terminal in question, with what appears to be a slender pedestrian bridge hooking up with the parking garage.
And this must be what your friends and loved ones will see when they come to pick you up:
The expanded concourse:
The gates:
- Plan [Houston Hobby]
- Houston gets the airline terminal of the future: New $156 million Hobby airport home aims to be “airy” [Culturemap]
- Previously on Swamplot: Southwest Spending $150 Million To Expand Hobby Airport for International Flights
Renderings: Houston Hobby
can’t come fast enough, let’s get on it southwest
thats a lot of white
The HOU is oriented the wrong way.
Did they ever publish the future flight paths before the city government approved this? Some neighborhoods will be living with these new flights on an hourly basis. The only nabes that might even protest would be Glenbrook Valley but with the terminal on the westside of the airport and destinations south of the border maybe they won’t be affected.
I don’t think the addition of the terminal changes the flight paths. It adds to the number of planes, but not the paths. The approach to Hobby is over Garden Villas not Glenbrook Valley.
@Houstorian…..nOH!
How funny 5 gates compared to United Airlines 50 gates. It is still great to have two International airports. Fares will not go down. Southwest also have American Airlines, Delta Airlines. and LAN.
The reason i loved to fly out of Hobby, was because it wasnt IAH. Now it looks like its going to be IAH. On top of that Hobby already had the highest increase in fare in the nation last year.
Unless they are adding a runway, the flight paths aren’t changing.
Actually, there are a half dozen approaches (and takeoff paths), of which one is over Garden Villas and used almost exclusively for landing (which is quieter); another does go over Glenbrook, but it’s typically not used for commercial service. The remaining approaches and takeoff paths are over commercial, industrial, or vacant land for quite a ways, for noise and safety reasons.
In any event, planes are SO much quieter now. When I was a kid, planes coming into Hobby were so loud that they interrupted conversations at my grandparents’ house near Palm Center; now even outdoors at a friend’s house in Garden Villas those gliding past are hardly noticeable.
I can’t wait until we get competitively priced flights to the Caribbean/Mexico/Northern , south america. There’s no reason that a flight to Panama costs as much as my round trip ticket to TURKEY.
Can you imagine all the all-inclusive packages w/ flights included that are going to be offered out of Houston when the terminal is finished?
IAH+HOU might just supplant Miami+FTL as a the main gateway to Latin america.
Still wondering why there were never any plans to connect the light rail to either one of the airports. Just saying.
LRS, now that would be something.
I live in Braeswood Place and hear them flying over us. Landing & taking off.
There are no plans for rail to the airports but I believe it was discussed back when the whole deal was passed in ’03 or whatever. I remember a Metro guy coming to my civic club meeting mentioning the possibility way in the future of running a line from Magnolia Transit Center to Hobby via either 75th/Garland past Mason Park, HCC Southeast and Gulfgate Mall with a stop at Gulfgate Transit Center, or possibly down Harrisburg/Broadway to Hobby instead. The North line also was talked about going to IAH. Those ideas are dead I’m sure at this point for now.
if something isn’t done to make broadway not an tire buster, it will be an embarresment to the city.
sorry, not a tire breaker
how about tie buster
Rail to Hobby and IAH is still in the long term plan, though, given the uncertainties of funding, there’s no way anyone can give a date. Hobby is likely first in line, since it’s closer and there’s a lot more population nearby that would also benefit from the connection. And the first step is there — get on Harrisburg at the end of the east end line and just stay on the same lane and you’ll end up at the Hobby Airport parking garage.
@LRS: Because Houston.
@DNAguy I hope you are right about pricing, but Houston is booming right now and everybody wants to make their money. Good luck finding discounts when seats already get booked up without any discount.
Now if they could get rid of the apartments along Broadway, so that when people depart the shiny new airport, they won’t think they have gotten off in Detroit by mistake.
Looks like international Super Bowl visitors will have something really nice and new to walk through when they arrive.
It may be an elaborate plan to keep them from seeing I-45 :)
I really miss the “OWNER HAS BRAIN DAMAGE” used car lot sign on 45 coming in from Intergalactic.