AUSTIN, Texas — This week, Austin’s Bergstrom International Airport celebrated 25 years of service to the millions of passengers who have flown in and out of Texas’ third-busiest airport.
But the airport’s history goes back much farther than 25 years.
The airport officially opened in 1942 as Del Valle Airfield, southeast of the city. A year later, the name was changed to Bergstrom Airfield to honor Cpt. John Bergstrom, the first Austin resident to die in action in World War II.
In 1990, the U.S. Congress ordered the closing of the airport because it was no longer needed after the Cold War ended. For Austin, the timing could not have been better.
That's because just a few miles north of the base, the city’s public airport, named for a former city councilman Robert Mueller, faced growing pains.
It was hemmed in by neighborhoods and an interstate highway. Jetliners would often approach the main runway in what seemed to be a few feet above vehicle traffic on Interstate 35.
But the availability of the former air force base opened the possibility to converting it into the city’s new airport – and that’s what happened. After a few years of intense construction activity, the airport we know as Austin Bergstrom International officially opened on May 23, 1999.