On Thursday, the director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, Jim Szczesniak, gave a state of the airports address to discuss the recent performance of Houston-area airports and potential plans for the future.

Szczesniak made his comments at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. The address came after the crucial Thanksgiving holiday when The George Bush Intercontinental Airport and The William P. Hobby Airport both saw record travel numbers. One of the major points of Thursday’s address was that the Houston Airport System has been a large revenue generator, according to Szczesniak.

“General tax dollars are not funding the airport at all,” he said. “About $30 billion of that impact is based at Bush and then $8 billion of that is based out of Hobby. Ellington’s around $2 billion. With that, we’re able to generate this $40 billion in economic activity and 200,000 jobs.”

Szczesniak says the system raised $13 billion in cargo-related output moving 534,123 metric tons of air cargo through Houston in 2023.

Terminal improvements and additions were also top-line items for Bush Airport. Szczesniak touted United Airlines’ big move from Terminal E into the new International Terminal as a way to ease congestion in other terminals at Bush.

Other improvements include speeding up parking lot entrances and exits by employing electronic license plate readers which generate a bill either online or at the exit gate, making payment easier.

Meanwhile, the construction of airport roadways at the entrance and exits to the airport is being improved, Szczesniak said.

“For the Christmas Holiday, the International Arrivals Terminal — the temporary one that chokes up the exit of the airport — that’s going to go away,” he said. “Pre-Thanksgiving we got the entrance to the airport cleaned up, now pre-Christmas we’ll get the exit to the airport cleaned up. So, getting that new international curb up and running is going to be a big benefit not only for traffic but for customer experience.”

Another focus of Szczesniak’s first state of the airports address is that the Houston-area Airport System has its eye on the future with big expansion plans in place for Houston Spaceport/Ellington Airport.

“So, we’re looking right now at a multitenant facility at the Spaceport, the big tenants are in 150-thousand square foot facilities, we’ve got some demand for smaller companies to support … so, we get that community growing by having some big fish and by having some little fish, so we help everybody in the pot.”