FSimStudios has recently released their rendition of William P. Hobby Airport (KHOU) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, serving Greater Houston with a yearly average of 13 million passengers.

Opened in 1927 as a private landing field in a pasture, it quickly became a full-blown airport. It got its first bits of commercial traffic in the early 30s by the wings of Braniff International Airways and Eastern Air Lines. Seven years later, it was purchased by the city of Houston and named Houston Municipal Airport (it was initially called W. T. Carter Field). A year later, in 1938, it was renamed Howard R. Hughes, responsible for several airport improvements. The name was quickly changed because the regulations didn’t allow federal improvement funds for an airport named after a living person. 

With the advent of Houston Intercontinental Airport in 1969, most airlines went to the new airport, leaving HOU with no scheduled traffic. It wasn’t until the 70s, with Houston Metro Airlines, a small commuter airline, that the airport saw the resumption of passenger services. It was a cross-town service from the airport to IAH. 

Southwest embraced HOU in 1971, flying nonstop to Dallas Love Field and San Antonio, followed by Braniff and Texas International shortly after to offer some competition.

Currently, Southwest holds most of the market share, flying to over 50 destinations all over North and Central America. It’s also served by Allegiant Air, American Eagle, Delta Air Lines, and Frontier Airlines, albeit with a substantially smaller participation in raw passenger volume.

The busiest destinations from Houston Hobby are Dallas Love Field, Denver, and Atlanta, with 380,000, 327,000, and 325,000 passengers each, respectively.

The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with a high-quality 3D model of the passenger terminal and its interior, custom ground textures, improved high-resolution orthographic imagery, an up-to-date AFCAD (as of 2023), custom taxiway signs, handmade PBR textured buildings, and the Hobby Airport DoubleTree Hilton.

It’s available on Contrail for roughly $18.98, requiring at least 1.8 GB of free hard disk space to install.

Shout out to Tang0 for the news scoop! Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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