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Valley International Airport

Valley International Airport
IATA: HRL ICAO: KHRL
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator City of Harlingen
Location Harlingen, Texas
Elevation AMSL 36 ft / 11 m
Coordinates 26°1343N 97°3916W / 26.22861°N 97.65444°W / 26.22861; -97.65444
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
13/31 7,257 2,212 Asphalt
17L/35R 5,949 1,813 Asphalt
17R/35L 8,301 2,530 Asphalt

Valley International Airport (IATA: HRL, ICAO: KHRL) is an airport located in northeast Harlingen, Texas, United States. The airport has three runways and is also known as Rio Grande Valley International Airport. It is the busiest commercial airport in the Rio Grande Valley in terms of passengers.

Contents

Airlines and destinations

Airlines Destinations
Southwest Airlines Austin, Dallas-Love, Houston-Hobby, San Antonio
Sun Country Airlines Seasonal: Minneapolis/St. Paul
United Express operated by ExpressJet Airlines Houston-Intercontinental
United Express operated by SkyWest Airlines Houston-Intercontinental
Top Destinations
Top Ten Busiest Domestic Routes Out of HRL
(May 2011 - April 2012) [1]
Rank City Passengers Carriers
1 Houston-Hobby, TX 153,000 Southwest
2 Houston-Intercontinental, TX 64,000 United
3 San Antonio, TX 31,000 Southwest
4 Dallas-Love, TX 27,000 Southwest
5 Austin, TX 26,000 Southwest
6 Minneapolis, MN 12,000 Sun Country
7 Chicago-Midway, IL 3,000 Southwest
8 Baltimore, MD 2,000 Southwest
9 Denver, CO 1,000 Southwest
10 Laughlin, NV 1,000 N/A

Airport Design

  • The airport features seven gates, though only three are operational year-round (two by Southwest and one by United); an additional gate is operated seasonally by Sun Country Airlines.
  • The airport is divided into two halves after security, right and left. United and Southwest dominate the right half, leaving the left half nearly abandoned and empty of concessions, especially when Sun Country is not providing passenger service. Continental previously had gates on the left half, though after American's departure, Continental took over American's Gate 7.

History

For military usage, see Harlingen Air Force Base.

After the airport's closure by the military, it was turned over to the local government and the facilities were converted to civilian use as Valley International Airport after Hurricane Beulah significantly flooded the original Harlingen civilian airport in 1967.

Services

  • Valley International Airport is the home of Cameron County's first Starbucks (operated by HMSHost), located in the main terminal prior to the security check-point.
  • The airport was among the first in the area to offer free Wi-Fi service.
  • Quizno's is located on the concourse, along with The Paradies Shops, PSAir Pub, and Tropics Cafe.
  • A parking lot shuttle and a shuttle to South Padre Island are available.

Cargo

Incidents and Accidents

On April 2, 2012, a United Airlines, Flight 4128, made an emergency landing at Corpus Christi due to unknown reason when it suffered damage to its front landing gear and also experienced a flat tire. The flight originated in Harlingen and was heading to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. There were 37 passengers on board, and there were no injuries. The aircraft was an Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet operated by ExpressJet. [2]

Area Airports

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=HRL&Airport_Name=Harlingen/San%20Benito,%20TX:%20Valley%20International&carrier=FACTS
  2. ^ http://www.thefloridanewsjournal.com/2012/04/02/united-flight-4128-makes-emergency-landing-corpus-christi-texas

References

  1. ^ http://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=HRL&Airport_Name=Harlingen/San%20Benito,%20TX:%20Valley%20International&carrier=FACTS
  2. ^ http://www.thefloridanewsjournal.com/2012/04/02/united-flight-4128-makes-emergency-landing-corpus-christi-texas

External links

Texas portal
Aviation portal
This article based on this article: Valley_International_Airportexternal Link from the free encyclopedia Wikipediaexternal Link and work with the GNU Free Documentation License. In Wikipedia is this list of the authorsexternal Link.