Midland International Air and Space Port Expands to Add More Gates

With a new direct flight coming soon and airlines getting more gat assignments, that means the airport is expanding.

According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Midland International Air and Space Port will be getting a 6th gate adding a gate to American Airlines.

Midland's air terminal when it was built in 1999 was designed to be able to expand the terminal if the need occurred, and 23 years later, the need is there to add another gate and it should be up and running by the beginning of March.

The new gate will be on the south end of the terminal and a federal grant to the terminal for repairs of the existing jet bridges made it possible to have extra funds to add a new jet bridge.

Midland International is seeing a rebound in the passengers flying in and out of the Midland/Odessa area.

So far through the first quarter of this year, almost 150,000 passengers have boarded a plane at the airport up 71.7% from the first quarter of either 2020 or 2021.

Passengers boarding flights in December were the third most passengers in the month of December in the past decade.

March 10 is when Southwest will introduce its non-stop flight to and from Austin.

The flight will be great for business travelers as it will leave in the morning and return in the evening.

Officials with the airport say people need to use the flight because if the "flight doesn't make money for them, they will not continue it."

Currently, there are flights to both airports in Dallas and Houston plus the airports in Las Vegas, Denver, and Phoenix.