Portal:Texas/Selected article/11

Austin–Bergstrom International Airport is a mixed-use commercial airport located in Travis County, Texas, 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Austin. The airport began passenger service on May 23, 1999. A total of 7,683,545 passengers traveled through the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in 2005, up 6 percent over the previous year and breaking the previous record of 7,658,671 set in 2000. Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, and Delta Air Lines are the airport's dominant carriers.

In 1942, the City of Austin purchased land and donated the land to the United States government for a military installation, with the stipulation that the city would get the land back when the government no longer needed it. This land became Bergstrom Air Force Base. In 1976, the city submitted a proposal to the United States Air Force for joint use of Bergstrom AFB. The Air Force rejected the proposal in 1978 as being too disruptive to its operations. In 1991, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission selected Bergstrom AFB for closure and gave the nod to the city for it to be used as a civilian airport. Groundbreaking for the airport was November 19, 1994 and air cargo operations began on June 30, 1997. Bergstrom had the designator BSM until Mueller's final closure, when it took Mueller's IATA code of AUS.