Houston's infrastructure is second to none. We leverage our locational advantage of being geographically centered between the East and West coasts with an exceptional airline system, deep sea port and intracoastal waterway, multiple major railroads and intermodal facilities, and a world-class highway system.

Houston Airports
In 2008, the Houston Airport System (HAS) handled 50,485,186 passengers including 7,960,132 international passengers.

The Houston Airport System has three facilities:

• George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) is the largest airport in the Houston region, with 700 daily departures serving nearly 43 million passengers in 2008. A new $440 million, 800,000 sq.ft. International terminal was recently opened. IAH offers nonstop service to over 175 destinations worldwide.
• Air Cargo operations and distribution facilities for the Houston Airport System have been consolidated at IAH. In 2008, IAH Air Cargo Distribution Center handled more than 372,007 metric tons of cargo, from the largest to the smallest freighter without any range or weight restrictions. State-of-the-art document-handling systems streamline the process; cargo carriers experience little or no wait at IAH.
• William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) is a major regional center for corporate and private aviation. Nearly 8.8 million passengers were served by HOU in 2008; HOU offers nonstop service to more than 32 destinations throughout the U.S.
• Ellington Airport (EFD) supports the operations of the U.S. Military, NASA, and a variety of general aviation tenants. EFD is one of the few locations in the United States that offers available commercial space and the accessibility benefits of an airport free of commercial air traffic.

International Flights
Houston offers non-stop of direct flights to 65 international destinations

Domestic Flights
Houston offers nonstop of direct flights to 110 U.S. markets.

The Houston region also offers excellent general aviation facilities for corporate aircraft. The FAA lists 37 public-use airports in the Houston region. [Number of general-use airports by county are: Austin (1), Brazoria (8), Chambers (3), Fort Bend (7), Galveston (2), Harris (7), Liberty (2), Matagorda (2), Montgomery (2), Walker (1) and Waller (2).]

Port of Houston
In 2008, the Port of Houston ranked first among U.S. ports in volume of foreign tonnage for the 13th consecutive year.

• The Port of Houston is a 25-mile-long (40-kilometer) complex of diversified public and private facilities just a few hours' sailing time from the Gulf of Mexico.
• More than 150 private industrial companies are included in the $16 billion industrial complex that lines both sides of the ship channel.
• A majority of the channel has a minimum width of 530 feet and a depth at mean low tide of 45 feet.
• Port of Houston has more than 100 wharves in operation, including private terminals.
• The Port of Houston Authority plays a vital role in ensuring navigational safety along the Houston Ship Channel, which has been instrumental in Houston's development as a center of international trade.
• 2008 Port of Houston Rankings:
• 1st in the U.S. in foreign tonnage for 13 consecutive years
• 1st in imports for 18 consecutive years
• 2nd in U.S. in total tonnage for 18 consecutive years
• 7th largest U.S. Container port, handling more than 1.79 million TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units)
• An environmental and security leader, the Port of Houston was the first U.S. Port to achieve both ISO14001 and ISO28000.
• Two major railroads and 150 trucking lines connect the Port to the balance of the continental United States, Canada and Mexico.
• More than 100 shipping lines provided service between Houston and more than 1,000 ports worldwide.

• The Port of Houston handles 69.6 percent of the containerized cargo market in the U.S. Gulf, and 95.5 percent of the containers moved through Texas seaports. Much of that activity takes place at Barbours Cut, the largest container terminal on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
• The $1.2 billion Bayport Container Terminal is a state-of-the-art facility and at total build-out, will substantially increase the port's container handling capacity. The terminal will have a total of seven container berths with the capacity to handle 2.3 million TEUs. The opening phase of the terminal became operational in January 2007. The Bayport Cruise Terminal will provide three berths for modern cruise vessels.
• The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway extends for some 1,300 miles from Brownsville, Texas to St. Mark's, Florida. This waterway runs parallel to the Texas coast and passes through the Houston region for 426 miles.

Railroads
Class I Railroads include Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS), and Union Pacific Railroad (UP); switching and terminal railroads include Galveston Railroad, L.P. (GVSR), Port Terminal Railroad Association (PTRA), and Texas City Terminal Railway Company.

Source: Texas Department of Transportation. 2007

• Fourteen mainline tracks radiate from Houston.
• Combined, BNSF and UP operate over 96 percent of the Class I track mileage in the state of Texas. The widespread coverage of BNSF and UP allows them to connect to most of the major markets statewide.
• There are ten deep-draft seaports in the region, all with rail connectivity. The ports are Houston, Galveston, Texas City, Freeport, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Lavaca/Point Comfort, Beaumont, Orange, and Port Arthur.

Houston-Area Intermodal Terminal Facilities

Houston's Highway System
Houston is well-served by a system of radial highways that provide excellent access to markets outside the region.

• In the Houston MSA, 3,703 lane miles of freeways and expressways are in operation.
• Houston has more miles of HOV (High-Occupancy Vehicle) lanes than any other U.S. city - with more than 208 total miles.
• Harris County's freeway/tollroad system totals 1,835 lane miles. The Houston-Galveston Regional Transportation Plan includes 94 miles of tollroads to be built by 2012. The total freeway system consists of 16 freeways and tollroads
• Houston also lies along the route of the proposed I-69 "NAFTA superhighway" that will link Canada, the U.S. industrial Midwest, Texas and Mexico.
• The Houston-Galveston Area Council's $65 billion 2025 Regional Transportation Plan and the METRO Solutions transit plan include hundreds of new tollroad lane miles to be built by 2025 and 97 miles of high-capacity transit (light rail, bus rapid transit, commuter rail and improved suburban bus service) to be in place by 2012.

Trucking
Houston is the hub of a major trucking network for the United States.

• Houston's trucking industry is well-integrated with the Port of Houston, Houston Intercontinental Airport, Hobby Airport, Ellington Airport and the mainline railroads serving the city.
• There are more than 1,427 non-local trucking firms operating in the Houston MSA, and that's more than cities such as Boston (1,008), Washington (999), San Francisco (906), Phoenix (902), Baltimore (810), Portland (788), Kansas (780) and Tampa (749).
• The Houston region has 11 primary intermodal terminal facilities and the trucking industry is a key component to all 11 terminals.