Outstanding amenities have been among the key drivers that have propelled William P. Hobby Airport (Hobby) to three consecutive years of outstanding 4-star ratings by Skytrax, recognized as a leading global air transport rating organization.

Hobby provides a variety of service-oriented amenities to enhance the travel experience for all its visitors (more than 13 million in 2017): chapel availability, courtesy phones, interactive visitor kiosks, vendor machines, water bottle filling stations, free Wi-Fi, service animal relief areas, and designated smoking areas among many more.

Dawn Hoffman, Landside Operations Manager at Hobby, said that Skytrax’s last set of recommendations to Hobby fueled Airport management to address changes in the designated smoking areas.

“Their report included making sure that we enforced smoking to be confined to the designated areas only and so we took the approach to make those areas more inviting,” Hoffman said.

“More inviting” took the form of adding more benches and trash cans to the designated areas, along with adding attractive plants recommended by a local horticulturist. Additionally, Hoffman said that more prominent signage was added to the areas.

 “An art mural committee also helped us as we chose to adorn what were formerly blank walls with some attractive murals,” Hoffman said.  She said that an area that had been historically dull and dingy had now been brought to life.

Hoffman and Hobby staff interacted with passengers throughout the process and the comments were very positive about the area being much more welcoming.

Hobby has three designated outdoor smoking areas at the upstairs Departures level and two downstairs at the Arrivals level.

More than 34 million Americans are smokers and worldwide, about 1.1 billion people -- one in every three adults -- are smokers, according to the World Health Organization.

In its 2018 audit results report, Skytrax said, “Hobby Airport continues to provide a solid customer experience in many key performance areas,” and that, “the outline details for future upgrades to seating and FIDs (Flight Information Display System) will be key drivers in pushing the airport closer to a 4.5 (and potentially 5) star standard in the future.”

Hobby is clearly on its way!