Southwest Airlines commits to $250 million expansion at Houston Hobby Airport

Southwest Airlines is pushing for a $250 million expansion at Houston Hobby Airport, a move that could further boost the Texas airport’s stature with the Dallas-based carrier. Houston’s city council approved a $20 million payment for design and preliminary work on the seven gate expansion at Houston’s smaller airport and Southwest plans to pay for the rest of the $230 million in advance. Southwest wants six of those gates for domestic flights and the other gate would be used by various airlines for international departures. “We’re working collaboratively with the Houston Airport System to design a seven-gate expansion to Hobby Airport’s west concourse,” said Southwest spokesman Dan Landson. “The action approved by the Houston City Council allows us to move forward with defining and designing the project.”

The project will likely take four to five years to complete. Houston Hobby has been an important cog in Southwest’s flight network, the seventh busiest airport for the airline with about 131 flights a day in March, according to flight schedule service Diio by Cirium. Houston was a part of Southwest Airlines’ original Texas triangle business model, which launched the airlines with flights between Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Like many of Southwest’s key stops, Houston Hobby is that city’s smaller airport with about 6.5 million passengers getting on flights there in 2019, making it slightly less busy than Dallas Love Field, where Southwest Airlines is headquartered. Houston’s other airport, George Bush Intercontinental, gets about three times as many passengers as Hobby.