Austin voters passed a bond issue to fund a municipal airport in May 1928. The airport was constructed northeast of downtown on what was then the edge of the city. A runway and small terminal were built on a 175-acre site. The airport began operations on October 14, 1930. It was named after Robert Mueller, a city commissioner who had died in office in January 1927. Passenger flights were available from the beginning; Texas Air Transport had begun service to Austin in 1929, initially flying into a privately owned airfield. The seat of the state government and home of the
University of Texas at Austin, the city soon attracted more flights. By 1931, Mueller Airport was served by three airlines. A second runway was added in 1937. During
World War II, the airport was busy. Due to congestion at
Del Valle Army Air Base, which had opened southeast of downtown Austin in 1942, some trainees practiced landing
Douglas C-47s at Mueller. Air traffic also included commercial flights, private pilots, and students in the
Civilian Pilot Training Program at the University of Texas. In 1942, a building that was originally intended for a flying school was repurposed as the new passenger terminal, and the airport's first
air traffic control tower was built atop it. The main runway was lengthened and equipped with new lighting, and a new passenger terminal and control tower were built. Two years later, Browning Aerial Service, a
fixed-base operator at Mueller, started a charter flight to
Marfa as a faster way for employees of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas to reach the
McDonald Observatory. Three aviation units of the
Texas National Guard shifted to Mueller from
Camp Mabry in 1970. In the 1970s, problems with Mueller led the city to contemplate building a new airport. Mueller was surrounded by housing and businesses, and plane crashes had occurred in the vicinity. The facility was also becoming congested, and its airspace overlapped with that of the air base, now known as Bergstrom Air Force Base. A series of expansions took place. A project completed in 1976 included
jetways, a larger baggage claim, and a second
instrument landing system. Five gates were added in 1983. In 1990, officials unveiled a new section of the terminal that provided four more gates and extra ticket counters. A new air-cargo facility was erected as well. Passenger counts rose as a result of
airline deregulation and the growth of Austin's high-tech economy. As of 1979, the airport was served by nine carriers that flew to eleven cities, including two outside Texas (Atlanta and Washington, D.C.). A commuter carrier named
Conquest Airlines moved its headquarters from
Beaumont to Austin in 1989. The airline linked its hub at Mueller to five destinations in Texas as of 1993. In August 1980,
Hurricane Allen gave rise to a tornado that struck Mueller, destroying hangars and aircraft of the fixed-base operator Ragsdale Aviation. The passenger terminal was unaffected, and no one was killed.
Closure and replacement Officials were planning to relocate the airport to
Manor when the Department of Defense announced in 1990 that it advised closing
Bergstrom Air Force Base, opening another possibility. The closure was approved in 1991. In 1993, Austin residents voted to convert the base into the city's new civilian airport. Bergstrom ceased operations as an active base that year and as a reserve base in 1996. Work on the new facility commenced in 1995. The runway was returned to serviceable condition. Buildings at the site were sold or demolished, and a terminal building, second runway, and traffic and parking infrastructure were built in their place. Conquest Airlines shut down in 1997, and the following year former executives of the company launched a new regional airline,
Austin Express. From January to October 1998,
Aerolitoral flew the first international route from Austin to
Monterrey, Mexico. The airport handled 6.1 million passengers in 1998. Robert Mueller Municipal Airport's commercial service ended on May 22, 1999, when a
Continental Airlines Boeing 737 bound for Albuquerque pushed back from the gate at 21:54.
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport opened the next day.
General-aviation activities at Mueller were scheduled to end on June 22; however, some departures were delayed due to weather.
Redevelopment as Mueller community In 2004, the city approved a development plan to transform the land that once housed the airport into the new community of
Mueller. People began settling in the neighborhood in 2007. The airport's
control tower was preserved and restored in response to the local community's desire to keep the iconic 1961 structure. The view of the
Texas State Capitol from the base of the tower became one of the
Capitol View Corridors protected under state and local law from obstruction by tall buildings in 1983, though redevelopment of the Mueller subdivision is exempt from the regulation. Robert Mueller Municipal Airport also left behind 20 acres of hangars that the city leased to the
Austin Film Society. The organization converted the hangars into soundstages and opened
Austin Studios, a film production facility, in 2000. ==Facilities==