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Austin, Texas is the home of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA). There has been an airport in Austin since the early 1930’s, but back then it was called Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, and located a little further North. In 1942, Mueller was bought by the US military. They used it for multiple kinds of aviation training all the way until the early 1980’s, when the military abandoned the installation and the city reaquired the airport. ABIA opened its doors to passengers over ten years later in 1999, thus starting a trend of record breaking turnouts that has endured year after year.  There are also several very successful flight schools in Austin.

Austin’s aviation history begins in 1911, when Calbraith Perry Rodgers landed his Vin Fiz Flyer a Wright Brothers biplane here, after the first flight across North America. Rodgers landed the biplane in a field near the Ridgetop subdivision, in the vicinity of what is now the intersection of Duval Street and 51st.

Beginning about 1917, the U.S. Army was using a small dirt strip South of St. Edward’s University to practice take-offs and landings. The strip was called Penn Field and acted as Austin’s first landing strip. It is thought that Penn Field was named after the first pilot from Central Texas to die in aerial combat during WWI.

In the late 1920′s, Austin City Council asked the Army to send a pilot from San Antonio to choose the best location for a municipal airport. They sent Lt. Claire Chennault, who later became known as the famous General Chennault of the WWII “Flying Tigers.” Chennault suggested that the Matthews farm area northeast of downtown by about four miles, would be the best location for a new airport. And so Robert Mueller Municipal Airport was born. Named after a city council member who died while serving Austin, the airport was finished and dedicated on October 14, 1930. The main terminal building was dedicated on May 27, 1961, re-built twenty-two years later, and an East terminal was dedicated in early 1990. Robert Mueller Municipal Airport’s doors officially closed in 1999, and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport’s opened that next day.

Austin has come a long way since 1911, and continues to grow and thrive. The area around Austin Bergstrom International Airport is sometimes called the “Silicon Valley of Texas” because of its constantly growing high tech industry. Airplane rental in Austin is highly sought after, as companies from all over Texas flock to Austin for chartering their own personal jets, and Austin Bergstrom International Airport receives over 7 million passengers each year.