The airport has been expanding to meet goals in the Tyler Master Plan; on August 17, 2002, the airport opened a new terminal building, doubling its space. Tyler is a large center for general aviation, with three public parking lots for general aviation.
The airport opened in November 1929 as Tyler Municipal Airport. During World War II, the airfield was used by the United States Army Air Forces as a training base and renamed Pounds Field after Lieutenant Jack Windham Pounds. At the end of the war, the airfield was turned over to local government for civil use and became Tyler Pounds Regional Airport.[6][7][8][9]
Mid-Continent Airlines was serving Tyler by 1947 with Douglas DC-3 aircraft operating a daily southbound routing of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN - Sioux Falls - Sioux City - Omaha - St. Joseph, MO - Kansas City - Joplin - Tulsa - Muskogee, OK - Tyler - Houston Hobby Airport as well as a daily northbound routing of Houston Hobby Airport - Tyler - Muskogee - Tulsa - Kansas City - Des Moines.[12] By 1952 Mid-Continent was operating two daily southbound DC-3 flights, one with a routing of a Minneapolis/St. Paul - Sioux Falls - Sioux City - Omaha - Kansas City - Tulsa - McAlester, OK - Paris, TX - Tyler - Longview, TX - Houston Hobby Airport and the other with a routing of Minneapolis/St. Paul - Omaha - Kansas City - Tulsa - Muskogee - Tyler - Houston Hobby Airport as well as a daily northbound DC-3 flight with a routing of Houston Hobby Airport - Longview - Tyler - Paris, TX - McAlester, OK - Tulsa - Joplin - Kansas City - Des Moines - Waterloo, IA - Mason City, IA - Rochester, MN - Minneapolis/St. Paul.[13]
Mid-Continent was then acquired by and merged into Braniff International Airways which in the spring of 1953 was operating DC-3 flights on a daily roundtrip routing of Houston Hobby Airport - Longview - Tyler - Tulsa - Joplin - Kansas City - Omaha - Minneapolis/St. Paul before discontinuing all service to Tyler later that same year.[14][15]
Trans-Texas Airways (TTa) also began serving Tyler in the 1940s; its Douglas DC-3s flew between Dallas Love Field, Beaumont/Port Arthur, and Houston Hobby Airport. In 1952, TTa flew three DC-3s a day to Beaumont/Port Arthur via Lufkin, Palestine, and Nacogdoches, with one flight continuing on to Galveston and Houston.[16]Convair 240 propeller aircraft and then Convair 600 turboprops later took over. In 1966, TTa Convair 240s and DC-3s flew nonstop to Dallas, while Convair 240s flew direct to Houston and New Orleans.[17] By 1968 TTa had begun Convair 600 turboprop flights at Tyler.[18]
Trans-Texas then changed its name to Texas International Airlines (TI); in 1970, TI Convair 600s and Beechcraft 99 turboprops flew nonstop to Dallas with direct Convair 600 service to Memphis and New Orleans.[19] Also in 1970, commuter air carrier Air Texas was operating nonstop Beechcraft 99 service between the airport and Austin (AUS), Dallas Love Field (DAL) and Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH).[20] In 1974, all TI flights at Tyler were being operated with Convair 600 turboprops with three weekday nonstops to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), as well as direct service to Houston and Memphis.[21] In 1975, Texas International had competition to Dallas/Fort Worth as commuter air carrier Metroflight Airlines, a subsidiary of Metro Airlines, was operating seven nonstop de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter flights to DFW, while TI had two nonstops with Convair 600s.[22] According to the February 1, 1976 Official Airline Guide, Texas International was operating direct Convair 600 service to Tyler from Austin, Houston (IAH), Midland/Odessa, Shreveport and Wichita Falls.[23] This OAG also lists nineteen weekday Metroflight Twin Otter flights being operated into Tyler, including nine nonstops from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), nine nonstops from Longview and one nonstop from Nacogdoches with this latter flight operating direct service from Houston (IAH) and Lufkin.[23]
By 1978, Texas International had pulled out of Tyler.
In 1979, Metroflight Airlines was operating the only flights to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) as an independent commuter air carrier with nonstop de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and Short 330 service as well as direct Twin Otters to IAH via Longview and/or Nacogdoches.[24][25] By 1981, the airline was operating 12 weekday nonstops between Tyler and Dallas/Fort Worth with Short 330s and Twin Otters.[26]
Metroflight then became an American Eagle carrier operating code sharing flights for American Airlines, and in 1985 was continuing to operate Twin Otter service between Tyler and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.[27] Also in 1985, Eastern Express operated by Metro Airlines on behalf of Eastern Air Lines was operating three flights a day from Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) with DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft including one nonstop flight and two direct one stop flights both via Longview.[28] Other airline service in 1985 included Air Spirit, an independent commuter airline, flying Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante turboprops nonstop to Austin as part of a Texarkana – Tyler – Austin route.[29]
In the mid-1990s, Conquest Airlines, a commuter airline, flew Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners nonstop to both Austin and San Antonio.[34] Dallas Express Airlines, another commuter airline, was flying twin-engined Pipers nonstop from DAL.[35][36] By 2000, Austin Express, also a commuter airline, had replaced Conquest with nonstop Metroliners to Austin.[37]
Denver, Colorado-based Frontier Airlines also offered flights from Tyler with Airbus A320 mainline jetliner service nonstop to Denver; these flights lasted from July 2019 to April 2020 with the A320 being the largest aircraft ever to operate scheduled passenger airline service from the airport.[38][39]
The Historic Aviation Memorial Museum, an aviation museum located at the airport, rented and moved into the former Tyler passenger terminal that had been closed since 2002. The museum has a number of military jet fighters on display among other exhibits, and also flies and maintains two Russian-manufactured MiG-17F jets based at the airport.[40]
Facilities and aircraft
The airport covers 1,200 acres (490 ha; 4.9 km2) at an elevation of 544 ft (166 m). It has three asphalt runways:
For the 12-month period ending July 31, 2011, the airport had 48,677 aircraft operations, average 133 per day: 83% general aviation, 14% air taxi, 2% airline, and 1% military; 152 aircraft were then based at the airport: 60% single-engine, 22% jet, 16% multi-engine, and 2% helicopter.[2]
Airline and destination
Passenger
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2022)
American Eagle, the regional air carrier subsidiary of American Airlines subsidiary, operates Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jets on its nonstop flights to DFW with this American Eagle service from Tyler being operated by SkyWest Airlines.[41]
Destinations from Tyler Pounds Regional Airport Red = Year-round destination Green = Seasonal destination
Accidents and incidents
July 13, 2017: Piper PA-31T Cheyenne owned by T-210 HOLDINGS LLC:[42] The aircraft went down as it was leaving the airport, headed to Midland Airpark. It crashed a quarter-mile south of the airport, with two fatalities.[43][44]
^"Tyler Pounds Airport History". tylertexasonline.com. Archived from the original on 25 December 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2020. Tyler's airport was dedicated on June 28, 1930 as Tyler Municipal Airport
^Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites History's Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004.
^Manning, Thomas A. (2005), History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas OCLC71006954, 29991467
^Thole, Lou (1999), Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now – Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub, ISBN1-57510-051-7
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