Midland International Airport - History

History

Midland International Airport was originally Sloan Field, a small airport started in 1927 by Samuel Addison Sloan. Sloan leased 220 acres of flat grassland from Clarence Scharbauer, a rancher. Sam Sloan was killed in 1929 and his brother, William Harvey Sloan continued the operation. In 1939 Harvey Sloan sold the Field to the City of Midland for $14,500.

Prominent businessmen in Midland could foresee the possibility of a military base in West Texas and in 1940 they started promoting the airport for use as a training base to the military establishment in Washington. Work was done by the Works Progress Administration with more runway and taxiway improvements, as well as airfield lighting. A visit by Brigadier General G.C. Brant, Commander of the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center at Randolph Field was made and he reported that the situation at Midland was very favorable. On June 13, 1941, it was announced that Midland would become a training base to be named Midland Army Air Field.

One of the first structures erected was a 500,000 gallon water tank which is still in use. Buildings for headquarters, officer, enlisted and cadet barracks, a station hospital, classrooms, mess hall and flight line soon followed. By the time the first enlisted man arrived in October 1941, 105 buildings were partially completed with the remaining 99 waiting to be started. In November 1941, officers and enlisted men started arriving for duty and it was announced that training of cadets would begin in January 1942. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the need for bombardiers was evident, soon after an announcement was made by Lieutenant Colonel Isaiah Davies, Commanding Officer of Midland Army Air Field (MAAF), that Midland AAF would be used exclusively to train bombardiers in the AT-11 Kansan for eventual assignment to bomber aircraft such as the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-25 Mitchell, B-26 Marauder and B-29 Superfortress.

The sole purpose of the Bombardier College was to train young men to use the Norden bombsight. Cadets arrived at Midland AAF for twelve weeks of combined ground and flight training, rigorous physical activity and rigid military discipline during a sixteen-hour day, with only part of Sunday off. The first class consisted of 103 cadets and graduated on April 30, 1942 and the last class to graduate was in January 1946. Students from the Netherlands, East Indies, France, Brazil and China were also trained at MAAF in addition to the over 8,000 U.S. Army Air Forces aviation cadets trained at this base from 1942 to 1946. In 1946, the base was considered surplus to Army Air Force requirements and was returned to the City of Midland for use as a civilian airport.

Midland-Odessa Regional Airport (MAF) opened its new passenger terminal in the early 1960s. At the time, MAF was served by Continental and Trans-Texas, both of whom operated popular point-to-point services linking West Texas towns.

The terminal was identified by its scalloped roofline, which allowed a column-free interior. All services - ticketing, baggage claim and concessions, were located inside the building, and a single departure lounge opened up onto the apron. Continental and Trans-Texas both introduced DC9 jet flights in the late 1960s.

This layout served the airport well until the late 1970s 'oil boom' hit Midland-Odessa. Rapid economic growth in the two cities led to a dramatic increase in flights, by both the incumbent airlines and new-entrant carriers like Southwest Airlines. After airline deregulation in 1978, American and Delta began flights, followed by start-up America West a few years later.

To cope with the rising demand, a new gate area was constructed along the apron. Included in the plan were four second-level gates equipped with jetbridges, concession space, and escalator wells linking the addition to the existing terminal. The south end of the main terminal was extended to include more ticketing space, and the original terminal was modernized (the scalloped roofline was removed).

By the 1990s, several of the new-entrant carriers had pulled out and most of the remaining airlines had downgraded to regional jets. Only Southwest, the airport's largest carrier, operated mainline jet flights.

The terminal building, however, had begun to look tired, and airport officials began planning for a more modern replacement. Construction began on the facility (which would be located in the infield parking lot) in 1996. The first half of the new terminal was opened in early 1999, at which point the 1966 terminal was closed and demolished. The second half of the new terminal was finished in late 1999.

Until the September 11th attacks, everyone was allowed access to the second floor; since then, however, only passengers are allowed past the security checkpoints.

In 2008, Southwest Airlines dropped all direct flight to El Paso, due to decreased passenger counts to that city. An afternoon flight to Austin has also been dropped even though negotiations are underway to keep that flight.

In 2011 Trey Atwater was arrested for attempting to board a flight back to Fort Bragg with C4 explosives in his luggage. He claimed to have forgotten it was in his luggage and prosecutors noted they did not believe he intended to harm anyone but pressed charges regardless.