Houston Airport System history

With the property secured, the team sold it to the city at cost, with the transfer completed by 1961, but the tract was not large enough and the city purchased additional land to accommodate the new airport.

In 1962, Stephen Cummings along with his partner, landowner and rice farmer, Willie Dopslauf, graded out the runway for a new airstrip known as Memorial Skyland.

In 1965, John Bridge and Willie teamed up to complete what Stephen had started and renamed the airport Lakeside because of the lake located on the east side of the runway.

The year was 1966 when Woody Lesikar, age 20, first landed at Lakeside Airport and found a job instructing for Frank Fennen, a local crop duster, with his flight school at Lakeside.

In 1991 the airport hosted the American Bonanza Society annual convention.

In April of 1997, the Houston City Council unanimously voted to rename the airport after the 41st President of the United States of America, George H. W. Bush.

Making history on January 7, 2009, a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 departed from Bush Intercontinental as the first United States commercial jet to fly on both jet fuel and biofuel.

The success of this became apparent as when 2010 passed, many private hangars had been constructed and numerous more on the drawing board, giving the airport over 500,000 square feet of hangar space.

In 2012 the Airport celebrated its 50th anniversary after a complete remodel of its terminal building and parking area.