HARLINGEN — The skies over Valley International Airport have been pretty quiet lately.
The closures of Houston Intercontinental Airport and Houston Hobby Airport have slowed emplanements at the Harlingen airport to a single daily flight to and from Austin.
That should change today, said Bryan Wren, assistant director of aviation at VIA.
“Southwest is going to have a 6:30 a.m. departure to Austin, a 2 p.m. departure to Dallas, a 4:30 pm. departure to Dallas and a 6:40 departure to Austin,” he said yesterday. “Those flights are coming in from Dallas and El Paso.”
Wren said both Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have ratcheted back their schedules since Friday when Hurricane Harvey started to hit the region in earnest.
Wren said he and other airport officials’ concerns here remain focused on disaster aid to those in need. When air travel will return to normal is unclear, he said.
“Hobby and Houston Intercontinental, both of those airports are surrounded by water right now,” Wren added. “There’s no word on when they may re-open.”
Wren said even when floodwaters recede, it will take time for officials to inspect the runways and taxiways to determine if they’re safe to use.
“Even when the water recedes there in Houston, they still have clean-up, and they don’t even know what condition the airfield is in,” he said.
“So they have to get it back to 139 FAA-safe, and then they’ll resume schedules,” Wren added.
He said he was pleased Southwest is giving Harlingen’s airport the Austin-Dallas flights to start moving people around in Texas, but he isn’t confident air travel in South Texas would reach its equilibrium any time soon.
“Plus, they’ve got to catch up on this six, seven, eight day mess of getting people re-booked, rescheduling, getting that tempo to come back to normal,” he said.
