Trans-Texas Airways (
TTa) and its successor
Texas International Airlines served Lufkin with scheduled passenger air service for over 27 years. In the fall of 1949, Houston-based TTa was operating 21-seat
Douglas DC-3 aircraft (which the airline called the "Starliner") into the airport six times a day with all flights operating three daily round trip routings of Houston
Hobby Airport - Galveston - Beaumont/Port Arthur - Lufkin - Palestine, TX - Dallas
Love Field. By the summer of 1968, TTa was still serving Lufkin with the DC-3 in addition to operating other flights with 40-seat
Convair 600 turboprop aircraft. The airline was operating four flights a day into the airport at this time with two nonstops to Houston Hobby Airport and two direct flights to Dallas Love Field via stops in Longview, TX and Tyler, TX. TTa then changed its name to Texas International Airlines which in the summer of 1970 was operating 15-seat
Beechcraft 99 commuter turboprops into Lufkin with nonstop service to Houston
Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and direct flights to Dallas Love Field (DAL) via Longview and Tyler. By the spring of 1974, Texas International had replaced the smaller Beechcraft aircraft and was operating two flights a day from the airport with larger
Convair 600 turboprops with direct service to
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) via stops in Longview and Tyler. Texas International then ceased serving Lufkin during the mid-1970s and the air carrier was eventually merged into
Continental Airlines. Several commuter airlines served Lufkin in the past as well. In early 1976,
Metroflight Airlines, a division of Clear Lake City, TX-based
Metro Airlines, was serving Lufkin with six flights a day operated with
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter twin turboprop aircraft. Three nonstop flights a day were operated to both Houston
Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and nearby
Nacogdoches, TX (OCH) with two of these flights to Nacogdoches continuing on to
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) via stops in Longview (GGG) and Tyler (TYR). In the spring of 1981, Abilene, TX-based Chaparral Airlines was operating three nonstop flights a day to Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) with
Beechcraft 99 commuter propjets. By 1994, the closest scheduled airline service was being flown from nearby airport (OCH) by
Lone Star Airlines with nonstop service to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and also nonstop to Natchez, MS (HEZ) with these flights being operated with
Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner commuter propjets. The airport currently does not have any scheduled passenger airline service. ==See also==