Early History
As far back as 1927 the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas had proposed a regional airport that would serve the entire metropolitan area. This did not come to fruition, and after World War II, Fort Worth decided to move the airlines from Meacham Field to a new facility, Amon Carter Field. Fort Worth annexed a finger of land to the east, extending the city limits to encompass the new site.
American, Braniff, Central, Continental, Delta, Eastern, Frontier and Trans-Texas Airways operated from the airport, which had three paved runways and a rather elaborate terminal building (including gold-plated murals). The airport never reached capacity and saw its traffic dwindle while traffic at Love Field in Dallas continued to grow.
On December 20, 1959 jet service began with American Airlines Boeing 707 flights to Los Angeles. Delta Air Lines later started Convair 880 jet nonstops to Los Angeles and New Orleans.
In 1960 the airport was renamed Greater Southwest International Airport in a failed attempt to increase passenger traffic. In the same year the city of Fort Worth purchased the airport to try to marginalize Dallas Love Field.
Read more about this topic: Greater Southwest International Airport
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