Brownsville, South Texas: The home of SpaceX, LNG and South Padre Island

Firstly, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at the airport?

I am the Airport Director for the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport. I joined the airport about a year ago now, having come from two other mid-size hubs, St. Louis Lambert International Airport and the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport. I’m originally from Puerto Rico, so very similar tropical destinations, and I’m loving every minute of Brownsville!

How many passengers per year do you serve?

In 2024, we saw our passenger numbers grow 15% year over year, welcoming 350,000 passengers to the new Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport Terminal. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were seeing in the range of 190,000 passengers to the airport each year, with the old terminal having only two gates and limited service. Needless to say, it’s been incredible growth.

How have you coped with this growth?

Growth of this scale is always challenging. The more passengers you see, the more services we have to provide, which is great. It’s just really growing the community. We’ve grown a little bit on personnel, so it has helped us hire more. Also, the airlines are hiring more staff. Even rental car companies are growing. I think everyone’s chipping in and trying to help as much as we can because of our growth, and it’s not going to stop there. Obviously, we’re going to continue to grow.

In 2021, you opened a new 95,000 feet square foot terminal, which replaced the outdated facility. Can you tell us how that changed the passenger experience?

It was a big change for Brownsville and the South Padre Island area, moving from the original 1960s 30,000 sq ft terminal, to a brand new modern facility with the largest Federal Inspection Service (FIS) facility in the entire Rio Grand Valley (RGV). With the new terminal, we have the capability of handling up to 400 international passengers with two international gates offloading at the same time. So, the change alone just in terms of the number of airlines that we can accommodate, is huge. Before, we only had two gates. Now we have four and enough ticket counters for about six or seven airlines operating out of a terminal.

We also have quite a bit more space for concessions. We have a new concession on the landside, which is called Calacas Tacos and Beer, perfectly mixing Texas and Mexican culture together to represent our community. We have also been able to accommodate another concession on the air side, which is Cactus Brew, which is a popular coffee shop in Brownsville. These are both so important in giving travellers that sense of place when you come to South Texas.

Now, of course, you didn’t have a restaurant until very recently, but what other concessions have you opened in the meantime?

When we were looking for a concession, we started doing more of the concession vending process. So, we do have a concession contract. It’s actually going for solicitation because we want to open it for all sorts of things. Some airports are looking at opportunities to bring other amenities like Legos, cakes and coffee vending, and many more. I think opening that contract to grow our offerings will be great.

We are looking for a bar operator on the secure side. Hopefully that will come into place here in 2025. Calacas, like I mentioned earlier, came on board about seven months ago and are doing fantastically. Cactus Brew is undergoing a renovation right now. They started as a small kiosk and now they’re moving into their full location at the airport. We’re also adding a kids play area and a business centre this year in partnership with the two economic development corporations of Brownsville.

What proportion of your passengers are business travellers as opposed to leisure travellers?

We’re very lucky that 60% of our passengers are business travellers, therefore 40% are leisure travellers visiting Brownsville and South Padre Island. We just happen to be the headquarters for SpaceX and they bring up to 200 material suppliers into our area, so we see a strong demand for business.

We also are seeing the largest investment in the country for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), at the Port of Brownsville, which is only 10 miles from our airport. So, we’re going to see up to a US$60 billion investment at the Port thanks to the LNG.

How are you looking to bolster non-aeronautical revenue?

We are in the business of developing land and we’ve had some good success recently. I’m working on a hotel proposal going out, and then we have a 150,000 sq ft warehouse development, in addition to a hangar development that is going to bring a fly school to BRO. We are looking into other utilisation of our land for things like light industrial use and shopping centre type retail.

We have opened 150 long-term car park spaces at the airport. We are already eyeing another expansion of the long-term lot because of the success we have seen in people parking at the airport. At the old terminal, there were only 75 parking spaces. We have now grown to over 325 spaces, which has been an amazing opportunity.

A lot of people are driving to the airport. We just happen to be a community where there’s a lot of family and friends support. You can see that every day at the terminal, people picking up their family members and their friends. But equally, I think people see the value in parking and not having to ask your friends or family to come pick you up at midnight.

It sounds like you have a very big impact within your local community, do you have any numbers to share with us in terms of the economic social impact?

Absolutely, there is huge economic impact, not just for the airport, but for the businesses that we have. We’re talking about an impact worth around US$200 billion to the community due to our four bridges with Mexico. We do see a lot of commerce between the two nations there. We also see the economic impact from SpaceX, economic impact for LNG and then leisure. South Padre Island sees eight million visitors a year. We’re a big component of bringing people in to enjoy the experience here in Brownsville.

How do you find the attraction and retention of airport staff?

It’s challenging for sure, but I think the biggest selling point we have at Brownsville is the culture that we have established. It’s about the people. It’s about the staff and how they can contribute, be proud of where they work and growth opportunities within the organisation. We really want them to learn more about different positions and be able to promote our workforce. And when that’s not possible, we give our employees the tools to work in different parts of the airport, and I think it’s great. We haven’t had a huge turnover in staff. I know people are always looking to figure out what their next step is, but they’re choosing to stay within the airport.

You were shortlisted for the International Airport Review Airport Honor Awards for the Accessibility Award in 2024. What initiatives are you especially proud of that you think got you shortlisted?

We were very proud of being nominated for the Accessibility Award. We like to invest in what really matters, which is being the friendliest, most accessible airport for the community. We instituted the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower programme last year and it’s been a great success. The community has really shown their appreciation for initiatives such as this.

We also have a website tour for travellers who wish to make themselves familiar with where they’re going at the airport, to help ensure their experience is as stress-free as possible. The tour was created when the terminal opened, it’s by Ocean 3D, and it even allows you to pan out to the ramp to see what happens out there, which is pretty cool for those that we inspire to follow aviation careers.

We are also leveraging technology to aid accessibility at the airport. We’re trying to implement sign language for our boarding process, which is going to start being tested here in the next few months. We also have a hearing loop programme included in the terminal.

What portion of your passengers have accessibility needs?

Around 0.5-1% of travellers coming to visit South Padre Island have accessibility needs. A lot of people choose to utilise our airport because it’s so accessible and close. Those looking for public transport, can take the shuttle that takes you to South Padre Island. It costs US$2 and is very convenient and completely accessible.

In terms of hidden disabilities, we ask those passengers with hidden disabilities to identify themselves through the PIN or the wristband, and we will always strive to be as accommodating as possible and see our how we can best serve their needs.

I understand you’ve launched a new marketing campaign. Can you tell us a bit more about this?

Our marketing campaign is evolving. So, it depends on the season that we’re in, but in general, our campaign is headed ‘closer to where you want to go’. We are very proud of our location, to where people generally go for business or for leisure, whether for SpaceX, LNG, so South Padre Island or the Four Bridges to Matamoros, Mexico, which is our sister city across the border, which has 700,000 residents that utilise our airport for travel.

Within the United States our marketing campaign ‘closer where you want to go’ is very successful in driving the numbers that we need to grow, largely because people value convenience.

How do you anticipate the new Trump administration impacting commercial aviation in the United States?

Honestly, we really don’t know what’s going to happen there. We’re very optimistic that the administration will continue to invest in aviation and infrastructure at airports and have more funds available for either redeveloping the airfield or expanding our commercial terminal to preserve what we have.

We go through our trade associations to make sure that the administration knows the needs of airports, and keep Brownsville in their minds. We work also with our senators and representatives to make sure that they’re aware of Brownsville’s needs.

What are your challenges for 2025?

I think one of the challenges we have is coping with the growth we’re experiencing. It’s been so fast, and the growth of the community is driving the growth of the airport. So hopefully we’ll be able to have more hands on deck to handle this. We don’t want to risk anything going wrong. We always want to make sure that we’re as efficient and perfect as possible.

Demand will be on how we handle the runway reconstruction, which is a US$35 million project at our airport this year. Also, how we handle our Rent-A-Car facility expansion this year.

What opportunities do you foresee for 2025? What are you most looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to more air service. I think the airlines are starting to pay attention to Brownsville South Padre Island, and the role that we play, and hopefully this will be the year that we see an airline join us or a new route coming. We’re very optimistic about this.

Equally, air cargo operations to support the development of Brownsville. So, air service and cargo are two priorities that will be front of mind for 2025.