History
The city of El Paso built the first El Paso Municipal Airport near the east side of the Franklin Mountains in 1928. The airport was closed by 1945 and in more recent times has been home to the Jobe Concrete Products "Planeport" cement factory.
What became El Paso International Airport was built as Standard Airport by Standard Airlines in 1929 for transcontinental air mail service. Standard Airlines became a division of American Airlines in the 1930s. In 1936 American Airlines "swapped" airports with the city of El Paso and El Paso International Airport was born.
In 1934 Varney Speed Lines (now Continental Airlines) operated at the old El Paso Municipal Airport (now closed). In 1937 the airline moved to Denver, Colorado when Robert Six took over the airline.
During World War II the airpprt was a United States Army Air Forces training base. Units which trained at El Paso Army Airfield were:
- 385th Bombardment Group (Heavy) (B-17 Flying Fortress) December 21, 1942 – February 1, 1943
- Served with the 8th Air Force in England.
- 491st Bombardment Group (Heavy) (B-24 Liberator) November 11, 1943 – January 1, 1944
- Served with the 8th Air Force in England.
- 497th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) (B-29 Superfortress) November 20 – December 1, 1943
- Served with the 20th Air Force at Saipan.
At the end of the war the airfield was deemed excess by the military and returned to the local government for civil aviation use.
Continental Airlines had a significant presence at the airport. It provided "Golden Jet" service to such cities as Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Midland-Odessa, Dallas Love Field, Austin, San Antonio and Houston. El Paso was the last stop of the first hijacking of a jetliner, a Boeing 707 owned by Continental Airlines. Before deregulation in the USA, El Paso was a focus city for Continental Airlines, however El Paso was soon demoted to a standard station in a hub-and-spoke system under Frank Lorenzo's leadership of the airline.
The current passenger concourses were built in 1971 as part of an expansion that tripled the size of the airport. It was designed by Garland & Hilles
Serving General Aviation at El Paso International Airport, Cutter Aviation established a Fixed Base Operation in 1982 at the airport. Cutter Aviation moved to a new facility on Shuttle Columbia Drive in 2006. Atlantic Aviation also serves general aviation at ELP.
Read more about this topic: El Paso International Airport
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