Valley International Airport (HRL), is an airport owned and operated by the city of Harlingen, in Cameron County, Texas, and is one of the primary airports serving the Rio Grande Valley (RGV), a geographic region in the south of the state near the Mexican border which is referred to by most from the region as simply “The Valley.” The airport offers passengers a convenient gateway for exploring the entire region, including providing convenient access to South Padre Island, a popular destination for leisure travelers.
The airport is one of the largest in South Texas, covering an area of over 2,500 acres with ample room nearby that is available should the airport choose to pursue expansion projects. Furthermore, the facility has very long runways, a legacy of its former history as a military installation, which reduces the chances of causing delays during bad weather as they give more room for aircraft with dynamic approach systems to error.
Photo: United States Geological Survey
As of January 2025, the airport is served by 
Southwest Airlines
, United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Sun Country Airlines, which provide seasonal service to the travel gateway. The airport is mostly connected to other airline hubs, with a few point-to-point services provided by low-cost operators, something relatively unsurprising given the airport’s size. Interestingly, the airport is a major cargo facility, ranking as one of the 80 largest airports in the United States by cargo traffic, and the facility sees regular flights from FedEx Express and DHL Airlines, both of which operate cargo services with widebody freighters.
Related
Delta Air Lines Schedules New Embraer E175 Service From Austin To Harlingen
The flights will result in more than 150 daily roundtrip seats.
As a primary service commercial airport that only continues to grow, many have speculated that Valley International Airport could soon become one of the most important facilities in Texas. Furthermore, the airport, which is run by a nine-person council appointed by the mayor of Harlingen, has been excited to welcome new airlines and launch growth initiatives. Let’s take a deeper look at Valley International Airport, and what the future might hold for this continually-expanding airport.
A quick history of how Valley International Airport was founded
Harlingen Air Force Base, a military installation that existed on the site of what is today Valley International Airport, was shut down in 1962 when a budget approved by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 ordered the closure of 70 air bases across the country. The military airfield was handed over to the City of Harlingen, which converted the facility to serve as a civilian airport. In 1967, the city’s original airport, Harlingen Municipal Airport, was permanently closed due to the extensive damage it sustained as a result of Hurricane Beulah. Today, that land has been repurposed as the Harlingen Country Club.
Photo: Harlingen Airport
The airport would soon be named Harlingen Regional Airport until it adopted the current name of Valley International Airport, a more fitting name given the fact that the airport serves as the principal gateway for the entire Rio Grande Valley region. While the airport is no longer an active military airfield, 50% of the flights that pass through the airport today are operated by the military. According to documents from the Federal Aviation Administration, these planes are primarily Air Force and Navy training aircraft originating from Air Force bases and Naval Air Stations across the state of Texas.
Related
How Many Intra-Texas Routes Does Southwest Airlines Operate?
The carrier operates over a dozen routes within Texas.
A history of commercial air services at Valley International Airport
The history of commercial air service at what is today Valley International Airport began back in 1947 when Trans-Texas Airways (TTA) began a Douglas DC-3 service from Harlingen Air Force Base under a joint-use agreement with the military. By 1960, TTA had relocated its services to the new Harlingen airport, after a 4,900-foot runway was built, not long before it moved its services back once again following Hurricane Beulah.
The airport saw jet service for the first time in 1967 when Trans-Texas Airways introduced Douglas DC-9 flights. By 1968, TTA’s DC-9 jets flew to Corpus Christi and Houston Hobby Airport (HOU), as well as to several more distant destinations, including Dallas Love Field (DAL), Little Rock, and Memphis. Convair 600 turboprop aircraft also provided nonstop flights to destinations in Mexico, including Monterrey and Tampico, a flight that actually operated with a stop in Veracruz. In 1972, service to Mexico ended, and TTA rebranded as Texas International Airlines, which would continue to serve Harlingen while launching the world’s first airline loyalty program.
Get all the latest aviation news for North America
from Simple Flying!
By 1978, Texas International operated all of its Harlingen flights with Douglas DC-9 jets, and it also offered nonstop flights to Austin Bergstrom Airport (AUS) and Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH), in addition to new direct services to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Albuquerque. The airline briefly dropped service to Harlingen before merging with Continental Airlines and resuming service shortly after. The legacy of TTA’s original flights to Harlingen lives on, as United Airlines integrated with Continental, and it continues to serve the airport today with CRJ-700 regional jets operated by SkyWest Airlines through its regional subsidiary United Express.
Related
Former DC-9 Operator: What Happened To Texas International Airlines?
The carrier had an extensive history and several different names.
Throughout the decades, multiple other airlines have set up shop at Harlingen, many of which served the airport with mainline aircraft. American Airlines and Braniff International Airways both served the facility using Boeing 727s, while Continental used both 727s and Douglas DC-9s. Back in the early 1980s, Braniff served the airport with flights to Dallas, Denver, and Omaha, and by 1999, American Eagle and Continental Express had downgraded their mainline jet services, now using turboprops to serve the facility.
A handful of US-based carriers have served the airport over the years and continue to do so today
Southwest Airlines began to serve Harlingen in 1975, as a result of network expansion efforts. In the late 1970s, it commenced operations using Boeing 727-200s and 737-200s, and it had ten weekday Boeing 737 flights from the airport, including nonstop services to Houston Hobby, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas Love Field. Today, the carrier remains the largest and most important airline at the facility, serving it with Boeing 737 jets.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, international services operated by Mexicana de Aviacion returned to the airport, with Boeing 727 flights operated to Mexico City and Monterrey, and Sun Country Airlines later launched seasonal services to its principal hub at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP), a route that it served with Boeing 727s, Douglas DC-10s and now Boeing 737-800s. Delta Air Lines introduced seasonal flights from Minneapolis/St. Paul, as well as 2013, used the Airbus A320 to serve this route. While Delta did suspend service on this route during the COVID-19 pandemic, the carrier resumed its daily flights in 2023.
Related
The 5 Longest Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 Routes From Minneapolis–St. Paul
Three of the routes travel to international destinations.
Frontier Airlines added Harlingen to its route map in November 2018, when it started operating flights to the airport from Denver International Airport (DEN) and Chicago-O’Hare International Airport (ORD), both of which it serves with Airbus A320 aircraft. The airline did later cut its route to Chicago-O’Hare, but American Eagle quickly filled this void with a new service in 2021. Late additions by Frontier included new nonstop flights to Las Vegas and Orlando, two of the nation’s largest leisure gateways.
Orlando International Airport
- IATA/ICAO Code
-
MCO/KMCO
- Country
-
United States
- CEO
-
Phil Brown
- Terminals
-
Terminal A |
Terminal B
So what exactly does the future hold for Valley International Airport?
This discussion raises an interesting question, one about the future of Valley International Airport. While the airport does serve as a regional hub, its growth potential mostly comes from leisure travel segments, most of which consist of vacationers headed to the beaches of South Padre Island. While travel demand to and from the island and the Rio Grande Valley only continues to grow, the biggest challenge to Valley International Airport’s growth will likely come from other airports in the region.
McAllen International Airport (MFE), for example, has only continued to grow as a result of increasing demand for travel to and from the valley. According to local news site myRGV, the airport saw an additional 50,000 passengers last year as a result of increased services from Delta Air Lines. To continue attracting more airlines and passengers, Valley International Airport will need to continue to demonstrate the reasons why it is the best travel gateway for the Rio Grande Valley and South Padre Island regions.
Credit: Source link
