Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport

Passenger airline service

Harold English opened English Field in 1929. That year Transcontinental & Western Air began passenger airline service to Amarillo. In 1931, Amarillo was a stop on coast-to-coast service between Los Angeles and New York City operated by Transcontinental & Western Air with Ford Trimotor aircraft. The airline's timetable stated this transcontinental flight could be accomplished in 36 hours with "overnight hotel stops" being made in each direction on a routing of Los Angeles-Kingman, AZ-Winslow, AZ-Albuquerque-Amarillo-Wichita-Kansas City-St. Louis-Indianapolis-Columbus, OH-Pittsburgh-Philadelphia-New York City (via Newark Airport). Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA) eventually changed its name to Trans World Airlines which in turn continued to serve Amarillo for many years.

In later years, Braniff International, Central Airlines and successor Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) as well as Continental Airlines began serving Amarillo. The April 1957 Official Airline Guide (OAG) lists 23 weekday departures: eleven on Braniff, eight on TWA, two on Central and two on Continental. Trans-Texas Airways (TTa, which was subsequently renamed Texas International) also then began serving the airport. Trans World Airlines operated flights to Wichita, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. In 1960, TWA was operating all of its flights into Amarillo with Lockheed Constellation propliners. By 1961, Continental was serving the airport with British-manufactured Vickers Viscount turboprops flying Amarillo-Lubbock-Dallas Love Field and Amarillo-Lubbock-Midland/Odessa-San Angelo-Austin-Houston Hobby Airport service. In 1966, Braniff was operating Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop service nonstop (and also direct via Lubbock) to Dallas Love Field as well as direct to Denver via Colorado Springs. By 1967, Braniff in cooperation with Eastern Airlines were operating interchange thru plane Electra propjet service between Atlanta and Denver via Amarillo on a daily round trip routing of Atlanta-Birmingham-Memphis-Little Rock-Tulsa-Oklahoma City-Amarillo-Denver. Also in 1967, Central Airlines was serving Amarillo with Douglas DC-3 prop aircraft and Convair 600 turboprops on direct services to Borger, TX, Denver, Kansas City, Liberal, KS, Oklahoma City, Pueblo, CO, Topeka and Wichita. Following its acquisition of and merger with Central, Frontier Airlines operated Convair 580 turboprops to Denver and Memphis via intermediate stops at various destinations in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Trans-Texas Airways began serving the airport during the mid 1960s with Convair 240 prop aircraft flying Amarillo-Lubbock-Abilene-Austin-Houston Hobby Airport service.

The first scheduled jet service into Amarillo was flown by Trans World Airlines in 1964. By 1966, TWA was serving the airport with Boeing 727 and Convair 880 jetliners with nonstop flights to Albuquerque and Wichita, and direct, no change of plane jet service to Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York LaGuardia Airport, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and San Francisco. In 1967, TWA was flying nonstop Boeing 727 service from Amarillo to LAX. By 1983, TWA had ceased all flights into the airport thus ending over 50 years of passenger service for Amarillo.

By 1968, Braniff International had introduced jet service into the airport with Boeing 727-100 and British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven jets. At this time, Braniff was operating nonstop 727 flights to Denver and also direct to Dallas Love Field (DAL) via a stop in Lubbock in addition to flying daily nonstops to DAL with the BAC One-Eleven twin jet and also operating a daily BAC One-Eleven service on a routing of Amarillo-Oklahoma City-Tulsa-Fort Smith, AR-Little Rock-Memphis. Braniff later operated nonstop Boeing 727-100 and Boeing 727-200 flights from the airport to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Continental also began jet service and in 1971 was operating Boeing 727 and Douglas DC-9-10 flights with routings of Amarillo-Lubbock-Dallas Love Field, Amarillo-Lubbock-Midland/Odessa-Houston Intercontinental Airport and Amarillo-Lubbock-Midland/Odessa-El Paso-Los Angeles. Continental would subsequently end its Amarillo service but would then return in 1982 when the airline merged with Texas International.

By 1978, Texas International was operating Douglas DC-9-10 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets into the airport on nonstop flights to Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, San Antonio and Lubbock with direct one stop DC-9 service to Austin and Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) as well as no change of plane multi-stop flights to Corpus Christi, McAllen, TX and Beaumont/Port Arthur, TX. Also in 1978, Southwest Airlines began operating nonstop Boeing 737-200 service to Dallas Love Field. Other airlines operating mainline jet service into the airport in the past included American Airlines with Boeing 727-100, Boeing 727-200, Fokker 100 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 nonstops to Dallas/Fort Worth, Continental Airlines (following its merger with Texas International in 1982) with Douglas DC-9-10 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 nonstops to Austin and Denver as well as one stop DC-9 service to Houston Intercontinental and Delta Air Lines with Boeing 737-200 nonstops to Dallas/Fort Worth. Aspen Airways also operated jet service into Amarillo in the past with British Aerospace BAe 146-100 aircraft flying both independently and later as United Express with nonstop flights to Denver.

Airline terminal and airport name change

In 1952 the airport name changed to Amarillo Air Terminal. After the adjacent Amarillo Air Force Base was deactivated in 1968 a portion became part of Amarillo Air Terminal. The primary instrument runway, built for the USAF Strategic Air Command base, at 13,502 feet (4,115 m) is among the longest commercial runways in the United States and is still used for military training. During the mid-1970s the airport was used for jet training by (then) West German national airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG. In 1976 the airport changed its name to Amarillo International Airport upon the opening of a U.S. Customs facility, which has since been closed.

The original English Field terminal building was converted in 1997 to a museum maintained by the Texas Aviation Historical Society. This museum lost its lease with the City of Amarillo and is now located in buildings southeast of the main runway, formally known as Attebury Grain. The name of the original airfield is memorialized in the English Fieldhouse, a local restaurant located adjacent to the general aviation terminal.

In 2003 the airport terminal building was rededicated to NASA astronaut Rick Husband, the commander of mission STS-107 of the Space Shuttle Columbia and an Amarillo native. Husband and his crew were killed when the Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry on February 1, 2003.

The terminal building underwent a $52.2 million renovation that was designed by the firms Reynolds, Smith & Hills and Shiver Megert and Associates and completed in 2011.

Visits by NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA)

On July 1, 2007 the Space Shuttle Atlantis made a stop at the airport while being transported on top of the NASA Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) from Edwards Air Force Base to Florida—one of the few visits by the shuttle to a commercial airport. After a brief stay it was flown on to Offutt Air Force Base.

In 2009 the airport was again used as a refueling stop by the NASA Boeing 747 SCA. On September 20, the Space Shuttle Discovery was transported from Edwards Air Force Base to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with stops in Amarillo, Carswell AFB in Ft.Worth, and Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

Facilities and aircraft

Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport covers 3,547 acres (1,435 ha) and has two concrete runways: 4/22 is 13,502 x 200 ft (4,115 x 61 m) and 13/31 is 7,901×150 ft (2,408×46 m). In 2007 the airport had 98,058 aircraft operations, average 268 per day: 48% military, 29% general aviation, 14% air taxi and 9% scheduled commercial. In November 2016, there were 44 aircraft based at this airport: 20 single-engine, 15 multi-engine, 8 jet and 1 helicopter. Leading Edge Corporation has an aircraft painting facility located on the airport; many American Airlines and United Airlines jetliners are painted there.