Sugar Land Regional Airport is a city-owned public-use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located in

Sugar Land, Texas Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the metropolitan area. Located about southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around th ...

(

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

), southwest of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the " city ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

. Founded privately in the early 1950s as Hull Field, it was renamed in 1990, as Sugar Land Municipal Airport when acquired by the city. As of 2009 it is the fourth-largest airport within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area and serves as a "reliever" of traffic to this airport. It handles approximately 200 aircraft operations per day during typical years, which include corporate business jet and turboprop flights. The airport today serves the area's

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

(GA) aircraft, serving corporate, governmental, and private clientele. It opened a new Terminal in 2006 with a GA complex, including 99 T-hangars in six buildings. The City of Sugar Land maintains Cullinan Park, which occupies of land directly north and west of the Sugar Land Regional Airport, blocking expansion. The airport is surrounded by Sugar Land homes, and there is a highway and rail road track directly south of the airport, which also block its expansion. The former Central Unit, a

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...

prison for males, was closed in 2011. It occupied land zoned for airport expansion.

History

Dr. Donald "Doc" Hull was an oral surgeon who established a dental program for the Texas Department of Corrections in the early 1950s. Hull, who commuted across Southeast Texas to provide dental care to prisoners, originally operated aircraft to South Houston Airport and Sam Houston Airport. As it expanded, the

City of Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

forced those airports to close. The former Sam Houston Airport was annexed as part of Houston's

extraterritorial jurisdiction Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is the legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries. Any authority can claim ETJ over any external territory they wish. However, for the claim to be effective in the extern ...

(ETJ) and became the Westbury area. Hull decided to develop a regional airport more distant from Houston but to serve the area. In 1952, Hull landed his biplane in a field near

Sugar Land Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the metropolitan area. Located about southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around th ...

. Afterward, with a loan from a friend, Hull purchased the property and developed a small airport. () The City of Sugar Land purchased Hull Field on December 18, 1990, and renamed the airport as "Sugar Land Municipal Airport." The City of Sugar Land opened an NFCT (non-federal control tower) that it funds and operates. This control tower manages traffic within of Sugar Land Airport from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily.

Past airline service

Several commuter airlines operated scheduled passenger service into Sugar Land Regional over the years. In the fall of 1979, Commutair was flying a "cross-town" shuttle service between the airport and Houston

Intercontinental Airport George Bush Intercontinental Airport is an international airport in Houston, Texas, United States, serving the Greater Houston metropolitan area. Located about north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and Interstate 69/ U.S. Highway 5 ...

(IAH), with

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...

twin turboprop aircraft operating up to twelve round-trip flights a day. The Commutair service was replaced by

Metro Airlines Metro Airlines, originally Houston Metro Airlines, was a commuter airline that was originally headquartered in Houston, Texas, United States,. Metro subsequently moved its headquarters to north Texas. The airline had an operational base locate ...

during the 1980s. In the summer of 1983, Metro, operating as an independent air carrier, was flying up to nine round trips a day between Sugar Land and Houston Intercontinental with Twin Otter aircraft. By early 1985, Metro Airlines had entered into a

codesharing A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

agreement with

Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Ea ...

and was flying Twin Otter aircraft as

Eastern Express The Eastern Express ( tr, Doğu Ekspresi) is an overnight passenger train operated by the Turkish State Railways. The train runs from Ankara Railway Station to Kars Railway Station in Kars. The train was the first overnight service east of Anka ...

between the airport and IAH with up to eleven round trip flights a day. In 1993, Austin-based

Conquest Airlines Conquest Airlines was an American regional airline initially headquartered in Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, Texas, and later headquartered in Austin, Texas. Conquest operated primarily on routes within Texas from its hub in Austin (at ...

announced it would begin intrastate flights from the airport to

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city i ...

(Mueller Airport),

Dallas Love Field Dallas Love Field is a city-owned public airport northwest of downtown Dallas, Texas., effective April 10, 2008 It was Dallas' main airport until 1974 when Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) opened. Love Field covers an area of a ...

(DAL), and

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. By 1994, Conquest had dropped flights to San Antonio but was still operating nonstops to Austin and Dallas. In 1995, the airline was operating three nonstop flights a day to Austin with

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild Aircraft at a plant in Sa ...

(Metro III model) propjets. By 1996, Conquest was no longer serving Sugar Land Regional. The airport does not have any scheduled passenger airline flights at the present time.

Current name

Sugar Land Regional Airport received its current name in October 2002. The airfield was formerly known as Sugar Land Municipal Airport and Hull Field. It is the fourth-largest airport in Greater Houston as of 2009, receiving annual usage from private planes of more than 100

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by '' Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

companies. TXP, Inc. released a report identifying the airport as "foremost general reliever airport in the southwest sector" and "a catalyst for corporate commerce in the Greater Houston market including the

Westchase District Westchase is a business district and neighborhood in western Houston, Texas, bounded by Westheimer Road on the north, Gessner Road on the east, Houston Center Boulevard on the west, and Westpark Tollway on the south. The area is bisected by Beltw ...

, Uptown, and

Greenway Plaza Greenway Plaza is a business district located along Interstate 69 ( U.S. Highway 59) within the Interstate 610 loop in southwestern Houston, Texas, west of Downtown and east of Uptown. The district is located immediately west of Upper Kirby, ...

." The airport is the fourth-largest in the Houston area, serving as a reliever for

William P. Hobby Airport William P. Hobby Airport (colloquially referred to as Hobby Airport, Houston Hobby, or simply Hobby) is an international airport in Houston, Texas, located from downtown Houston. Hobby is Houston's oldest commercial airport, and was its primar ...

. As of 2010, Sugar Land Regional is the third-busiest airport in Greater Houston by number of aircraft operations.

Facilities and aircraft

Sugar Land Regional Airport covers an area of and contains one concrete paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete, ...

designated 17/35 which measures 8,000 x 100 ft (2,438 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending July 28, 2005, the airport had 90,758 aircraft operations, an average of 248 per day: 95%

, 5%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

and less than 1%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...

. In August 2017, there were 139 aircraft based at this airport: 84 single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

, 18 multi-engine, 34 jet and 3

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

. The airport includes the former Stanford Aviation hangar, described by Mimi Swartz of ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. ''Texas Monthly'' was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy and has been published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. since 1998 and i ...

'' as "impeccably landscaped." Flights from the terminal went to

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barb ...

. US Customs and Border Protection has a small facility at the airport.

Gallery

File:FortBend 420.JPG, Stanford Aviation Terminal File:SugarLandRegionalAirportCentralUnitAerial2002.png, Aerial photograph of the airport and the Central Unit prison property, which is on both sides of the runway, on January 27, 2002 -

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

File:JesterHarlemPrisonFarmFortBendCoTx.png, Topographical map of the airport, with the Central Prison Farm. To the west is the

Jester Prison Farm The Beauford H. Jester Complex, formerly the Jester State Prison Farm, refers to a complex of Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons for men in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas. Individually they are Jester I Unit, Carol Vance Unit ( ...

( Jester I, Jester II (Carol Vance), Jester III, and Jester IV), July 1, 1990,

References

External links

Sugar Land Regional Airport

The Economic Impact of Sugar Land Regional Airport
{{Greater Houston Airports Sugar Land, Texas Airports in Greater Houston Transportation in Fort Bend County, Texas Buildings and structures in Fort Bend County, Texas Airports established in 1952 1952 establishments in Texas