William P. Hobby Airport traces its origins to June 1927, when Texas businessman W. T. Carter Jr. opened a private 600-acre landing field in South Houston. The City of Houston acquired the property in 1937, renaming it Houston Municipal Airport. Early tenants included Braniff International Airways and Eastern Air Lines. In 1954 the airport was rebranded Houston International Airport, and by 1957 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was operating flights to Amsterdam via Montreal from the field. The airport received its current name in 1967, honoring William Pettus Hobby, the 27th Governor of Texas.

For decades, HOU was Houston's sole commercial airport. That changed in 1969 with the opening of Houston Intercontinental Airport (now George Bush Intercontinental), and most major carriers departed. The airport's survival is inseparable from Southwest Airlines, which launched service in 1971 and made HOU its base, transforming it into a high-frequency domestic hub. Southwest later funded construction of a $146 million international terminal, which opened on October 15, 2015, returning international service to HOU for the first time in 46 years.

Located 11 miles southeast of downtown, the airport occupies 1,304 acres and operates with a compact single-terminal design linking two concourses. That proximity to the urban core is a real advantage: George Bush Intercontinental sits roughly 23 miles to the north. In 2022, HOU became the first airport in North America to earn a 5-Star rating from Skytrax, a distinction it has since maintained. The airport recorded nearly 14 million passengers in 2025, and a further $470 million West Concourse expansion adding 7 gates is scheduled for completion in summer 2027.