Laredo International Airport is three miles northeast of downtown Laredo, in

Webb County Webb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 267,114. Its county seat is Laredo. The county was named after James Webb (1792–1856), who served as secretary of the treasury, secreta ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2017–2021 categorized it as a non-hub ''primary commercial service'' airport. The airport sees four airlines with flights to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, and

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. In the year ending December 2013, LRD had 102,856 passengers. In 2012, LRD totaled 460,000,612 pounds of cargo.

History

The Laredo International Airport was used by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as Laredo Army Airfield, and by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Laredo Air Force Base Laredo Air Force Base, is a since-deactivated Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) installation of the Air Training Command (ATC) in Laredo, Texas. The facility was originally established as Laredo Army Air Field, a World War II U.S. Army Air For ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

as a pilot training base with

T-33 Shooting Star The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

and later

T-37 Tweet The Cessna T-37 Tweet (designated Model 318 by Cessna) is a small, economical twin-engined jet trainer type which flew for decades as a primary trainer for the United States Air Force (USAF) and in the air forces of several other nations. The T ...

and

T-38 Talon The Northrop T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer. It was the world's first, and the most produced, supersonic trainer. The T-38 remains in service in several air forces. The United States Air Force (USAF) operates the most ...

aircraft. The military presence ended in December 1973 as part of a nationwide defense cut back after the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Commercial air service provided by

Texas International Airlines Texas International Airlines Inc. was a United States airline, known from 1940 until 1947 as Aviation Enterprises, until 1969 as Trans-Texas Airways (TTa), and as Texas International Airlines until 1982, when it merged with Continental Airlines. ...

(formerly Trans-Texas Airways) was moved from the Laredo Municipal Airport (now closed) to the Laredo International Airport in the summer of 1975. Texas International was then able to upgrade their service from

Convair 600 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...

prop aircraft to

Douglas DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

jets. Since then several other commercial airlines and air freight carriers have used this airfield. At the entrance to the airport is the statue ''Among Friends There Are No Borders'', designed by

Armando Hinojosa Armando Garcia Hinojosa (born 1944) is an artist and educator from Laredo, Texas, who is known for some half dozen major pieces of sculpture, including the massive Tejano Monument on the south lawn of the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Th ...

of Laredo, which depicts a

South Texas South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 4.96 ...

vaquero The ''vaquero'' (; pt, vaqueiro, , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in Mexico from a methodology brought to Latin America from Spain. The vaquero became t ...

and a Mexican

charro Charro has several meanings, but it generally refers to Mexican horse riders, who maintain traditional dress, such as some form of sombrero, which in Mexican Spanish are called ''sombrero de charro'' (a charro's hat). The charros could also ...

sharing a campfire.

Facilities

Laredo International Airport covers at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 508 feet (155 m). It has three

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s: * 18L/36R: 8,236 x 150 ft (2,510 x 46 m) Concrete * 18R/36L: 8,743 x 150 ft (2,665 x 46 m) Concrete * 14/32: 5,927 x 150 ft (1,807 x 46 m) Concrete In the year ending September 30, 2018 the airport had 97,189 aircraft operations, an average of 266 per day: 41% military, 38%

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

, 13%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) an ...

and 8% airline. In December 2019, 65 aircraft were based at this airport: 15 single-engine, 15 multi-engine, 20 jet and 15

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

. There is one, two-floor terminal at the Laredo International Airport. The bottom floor has the check-in counters, a gift shop, a restaurant,

baggage carousel A baggage carousel is a device, generally at an airport, that delivers checked luggage to the passengers at the baggage reclaim area at their final destination. Not all airports use these devices. Airports without carousels generally deliver bagg ...

, rental car desks, and US customs. The airport's security checkpoint and four gates, all with jetways, are on the second floor. Free Wi-Fi internet access is available throughout the terminal. Gates 3 and 4 allow direct access to US customs. LRD sometimes receives diverted flights when severe weather threatens Dallas or Houston.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Accidents and incidents

*On 31 October 1983,

Douglas DC-3C The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

N44896 of FBN Flying Service was destroyed by fire at Laredo International Airport while attempting to take-off on a cargo flight to

McAllen-Miller International Airport McAllen International Airport is in McAllen, in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021 categorized it as a small hub ''primary commercial service'' airport. Runways McAllen Inter ...

. A fire had developed on board the aircraft during the take-off run, and the crew were unable to extinguish it with the equipment available to them. *On 28 July 1987,

Douglas C-53 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in f ...

N39DT of La Mesa Leasing Inc was damaged beyond economic repair when the port engine failed shortly after take-off on an international cargo flight to Ciudad Camargo Airport,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The aircraft was overloaded by and the power from the remaining good engine was insufficient to sustain flight. The aircraft stalled and crashed whilst attempting to make an emergency landing back at Laredo. Both crew survived. A post-accident investigation revealed no problems with the failed engine. *On 18 January 1989, Douglas DC-3 XB-DYP crashed shortly after take-off. The aircraft was on an international cargo flight to

Torreón International Airport Francisco Sarabia International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional De Torreón Francisco Sarabia, ), also known as Torreón International Airport, is an international airport located in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico. It handles the national and ...

. The cause of the accident was that the cargo was improperly secured and shifted in flight, causing the

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

to move aft. *On 21 May 2002, Douglas DC-3A XB-JBR of Aero JBR ditched in

Lake Casa Blanca Lake Casa Blanca is a reservoir on the Chacon Creek, northeast of downtown Laredo, Texas, United States. The reservoir was formed in 1951 by the construction of a dam to provide recreational opportunities for the residents of Webb County. The cu ...

, after a double engine failure while performing a touch-and-go at Laredo International Airport. It is reported that one of the engines suffered a propeller overspeed condition. All three crew escaped from the submerged aircraft. *On 9 November 2010, ZA002, a flight test

Boeing 787 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...

made an emergency landing after fire had broken out in its P100 electrical panel.flightgobal.com Fire on 787 Test Aircraft
/ref>

References

External links

* * *
{{Authority control Airports in Texas Transportation in Laredo, Texas Transportation in Webb County, Texas Buildings and structures in Webb County, Texas