Welcome toWilliam P. Hobby Airport

Before the holiday rush, Houston Airports invites you to explore a changing dining scene. Come hungry. No flight required.Most airport trips begin with somewhere else in mind. This one can begin with pulled pork sliders.Or crawfish étouffée. Or a caramel apple, if dessert is the priority.On Nov. 10, Houston Airports will host its first Flavor Fest at William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), bringing participating restaurants together before security for an afternoon built around the food.Each $30 ticket includes a small plate from every participating restaurant at the selected airport event, water and soda, live entertainment, a commemorative gift and parking. Guests can watch airport chefs compete and cast a People’s Choice vote for their favorite bite.The invitation comes after several years of rethinking what passengers should find on the menu.For people who live and work nearby, Flavor Fest is an invitation to experience a part of the airport they might otherwise encounter only on a travel day — with time to savor it before the Thanksgiving rush.In February 2024, Hobby celebrated the first openings in a phased dining transformation, including The Spot, Velvet Taco and Fat Cat Creamery. The aim was to give travelers more variety and a stronger connection to the region through its food.The lineup kept growing. The Rustic, Killen’s BBQ and Yard House opened in 2025. This June brought Landry’s Seafood House and the first airport location for Common Bond.“Houston has a food identity people travel to experience. We want that identity to come through in our airports,” said Francisco Cuellar, chief commercial development officer for Houston Airports. “We’ve spent years building this lineup with our restaurant partners. Now we’re inviting our neighbors to come enjoy it.”The work has earned recognition. Hobby won best overall concessions program among medium and small airports at the 2026 Airport Experience Awards. It also retained its five-star Skytrax rating for a fifth year, remaining the only airport in North America with that distinction for the overall airport experience.At Flavor Fest, that larger story becomes something guests can taste: pulled pork sliders from Killen’s BBQ, crawfish étouffée from Landry’s Seafood House, poke nachos from Yard House and queso with fire-roasted salsa from The Spot.Common Bond, The Rustic and Velvet Taco add bistro fare, Texas-inspired comfort food and tacos. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory supplies reasons to save room: caramel apples, chocolates and Blue Bell ice cream.“On a travel day, your gate and boarding time help decide where you eat. Flavor Fest gives you a chance to explore,” said Steven Bass, director of concessions for Houston Airports. “Our restaurant partners have put real work into these menus. This is a chance to celebrate that work and find a new favorite.”The invitation extends to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) on Nov. 17.Bush ranked among the world’s top 10 for airport dining in the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Skytrax World Airport Awards. At an airport with five terminals, a flight schedule leaves only so much time to explore that variety. Flavor Fest brings participating restaurants together in one public event space.The IAH menu includes quesabirria with broth from El Premio Tex-Mex Bar & Grill, fajita nachos from El Tiempo Cantina, crab tostadas from The Annie and dumplings from Little Purse Dumpling Den.Proceeds from both events benefit Wings of Compassion, a nonprofit providing emergency assistance to members of the airport community facing hardship, including workers affected by this year’s partial federal government shutdown.Come for the foodBoth events take place before security and are open to the public with a Flavor Fest ticket.- Hobby: Tuesday, Nov. 10, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., near the Southwest Airlines ticketing counters. Blue Garage parking included.- Bush: Tuesday, Nov. 17, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Terminal D ticketing lobby. C/D/E Garage parking included.Guests may arrive anytime during event hours. Bring your ticket confirmation email to registration, where parking will be validated. Each ticket covers one airport event. Advance online purchase is required.Explore the menus and purchase tickets at fly2houston.com/flavorfest

Travelers who want to charge an electric vehicle while flying from Houston's airports should plan to park at ecopark. Choosing the right lot before leaving home helps drivers head straight to the charging location.Where to plug inAt IAH, travelers can find EV charging at:- ecopark on John F. Kennedy Boulevard- ecopark2 on Will Clayton Parkway. A parking reservation is required for entry.At HOU, EV charging is available at the airport’s ecopark lot.Before traveling, visit the airport’s parking page for lot details, directions and reservations.Electric vehicles behind the scenesThe commitment to electric vehicles extends beyond passenger parking.Houston Airports has 57 electric vehicles in its fleet — nearly 60 trucks and vans supporting the work that keeps its airports running. In May, the system added 32 electric vehicles to replace gas-powered vehicles across IAH, HOU and Ellington Airport (EFD)/Houston Spaceport.The additions include Ford F-150 Lightning trucks and Ford E-Transit utility vans for teams handling maintenance, information technology and other airport operations. Replacing gas-powered work vehicles with electric models reduces tailpipe emissions from those daily trips.Progress in reducing emissionsFleet electrification is one part of the airport system's work to reduce its carbon footprint. Other investments include LED lighting, more efficient energy systems and a solar canopy that generates electricity for Hobby Airport operations.In September, Houston Airports reported a 23% systemwide reduction in carbon emissions from its 2019 baseline. From 2019 to 2024, emissions fell 31% at IAH, 28% at HOU and 11% at EFD.All three airports achieved Level 3 in Airports Council International’s Airport Carbon Accreditation program in 2025 and were renewed at Level 3 in 2026. That level expands the work to include collaboration with airlines and other airport partners on managing emissions.

On a Tuesday morning in August, Ella Ghica sent a thank-you note to the families of teenagers who had spent their summer helping passengers at Houston’s airports. A few hours later, one parent wrote back.In her note, Ghica described what she witnessed in the terminals. In his reply, Jerrold Sarmiento described what he saw after his daughter came home.Read together, the emails reveal what can happen when communication moves off a screen and into public life.At the center are four words: “May I help you?”“For many of the teens, approaching a passenger who appeared lost or needed assistance was challenging at first,” wrote Ghica, manager of outreach initiatives for the volunteer programs at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport. “It takes confidence to walk up to someone and ask, ‘May I help you?’”In 2026, teenagers have not forgotten how to talk. They have simply grown up with time between thought and response. On a phone, tablet or computer, a message can be drafted and revised. Even a sent text can be edited. There is time to shape the response and the image it projects. Face-to-face conversation in an airport terminal offers no such buffer.The need for help does not arrive as a smartphone notification. The teen volunteer has to recognize it and answer without rehearsal.The Houston Airports Teen Volunteer Program, now in its second summer, is open to teenagers whose parents work for Houston Airports. Ghica’s email makes clear that confidence was not a prerequisite. It turned out to be one of the program’s results. “After spending time in the terminals and gaining experience, we watched their confidence grow,” Ghica wrote. “Seeing that transformation was one of the most rewarding parts of the program.”The teenagers were learning customer service, but they were also learning how to enter a moment that did not belong to them. Someone else was lost. Someone else was worried. To help, they had to turn their attention outward and speak first with enough assurance to put a traveler at ease. By the end of the summer, Ghica saw teenagers who had once hesitated become part of the daily rhythm of the airport.“Your teens not only helped our passengers — they became a valued part of our airport family,” she wrote.Sarmiento recognized the change Ghica described because he had been watching it from the other side.A Houston Airports employee whose daughter participated in the program, Sarmiento saw what no airport supervisor could: the stories she carried through the front door.“She came home with so many positive stories about helping passengers,” he wrote.LEARN MORE: Volunteer with Houston AirportsThose stories were evidence of something deeper. His daughter was not merely recounting how she had spent her day. She was describing moments when she approached someone she did not know and became the person who could help.“I could also see how the experience helped her become more confident in communicating with others and stepping outside of her comfort zone,” Sarmiento wrote.His reply adds something an institutional thank-you note cannot: a parent’s knowledge of who a child was before the summer and what had begun to shift.“It was much more than simply volunteering,” he wrote.The program gave his daughter, Sarmiento said, “a greater understanding of what it means to serve others.”Their two perspectives explain why a teen volunteer program matters at a moment when adolescence and air travel are increasingly mediated by technology.A phone can guide a passenger to a gate. It cannot always recognize when someone is too uncertain to ask for help.For the teenagers, the work required a different kind of attention. They had to watch the people in front of them.That is a practical skill learned in public, one passenger at a time.Ghica saw it in the terminals. Sarmiento saw it at home.“We are very grateful to you and everyone at Houston Airports who welcomed, encouraged and guided the teens throughout the summer,” he wrote. “She will carry the lessons and memories from this summer with her for years to come.”Next summer, when a teen volunteer asks, “May I help you?” those four words may help a passenger find their way — and a young person find their voice.