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Jack Brooks Regional Airport (KBPT) serves the Beaumont/Port Arthur area of southeast Texas, sitting in unincorporated Jefferson County some nine miles southeast of Beaumont. It is a county-owned public airport handling a mix of general aviation, air taxi and limited scheduled airline traffic, with two lit hard-surfaced runways and an ILS approach, making it a straightforward and well-equipped VFR or IFR destination for visiting pilots.
Jack Brooks Regional Airport, formerly known as Jefferson County Airport and later Southeast Texas Regional Airport, is a county-owned public-use field serving the combined Beaumont/Port Arthur area of southeast Texas. It was renamed in honour of former U.S. Representative Jack Brooks of Beaumont. The field is predominantly used for general aviation, with a smaller proportion of air taxi, military and scheduled airline movements, and offers an interesting mix of history and modern facilities for a visiting sim pilot.
The airport lies in unincorporated Jefferson County, Texas, southwest of the city of Nederland, roughly nine miles southeast of Beaumont and to the northeast of Port Arthur. It sits at an elevation of 10 feet above mean sea level near the Gulf coast of southeast Texas.
Jack Brooks Regional has two paved physical runways. Runway 12/30 is 6,743 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting, and is served by an ILS approach on runway 12. Runway 16/34 is 5,074 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit, but without an instrument landing system.
Beaumont Approach/Departure works on 121.3 MHz. The ATIS broadcasts on 126.3 MHz, and Clearance Delivery is available on 118.3 MHz. Beaumont Tower operates on 119.5 MHz, which also serves as the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) when the tower is not staffed. Ground control is on 121.9 MHz, with Montgomery County Radio on 122.2 MHz, and Unicom available on 122.95 MHz.
The airport was originally known as Jefferson County Airport before being renamed Jack Brooks Regional Airport in honour of the long-serving U.S. Representative for Beaumont. It has a long history of scheduled airline service: Chicago and Southern Air Lines began flying into the field in 1947, with successor Delta Air Lines operating mainline jet service until 1979, while Eastern Air Lines flew the Houston-New Orleans routing until ending mainline service in 1966. Trans-Texas Airways, later Texas International Airlines, served the airport for more than three decades, introducing Douglas DC-9 jet flights in the 1960s alongside Convair turboprop and Douglas DC-3 services to destinations across Texas and Louisiana. By the 1970s Texas International was operating multi-stop DC-9 services as far afield as Los Angeles and New York. A succession of commuter carriers, including Metro Airlines, Royale Airlines, Air Texana and Conquest Airlines, later linked the airport to Houston, Dallas and New Orleans using Twin Otters, Bandeirantes, Beechcraft types and Metroliners. Scheduled jet service by Southwest Airlines ended in 1980, and various later carriers including American Eagle, Continental, Delta Connection and United Express operated services with mixed longevity; United Express (Colgan Air) Saab 340 flights to Houston Intercontinental ended in July 2012, after which the airport briefly lost all scheduled passenger service before American Eagle resumed flights to Dallas/Fort Worth in February 2013.
The airport today covers some 1,799 acres and is used predominantly for general aviation, which accounted for the large majority of aircraft operations in the year to December 2022, with smaller shares of air taxi, military and scheduled airline movements. Around 65 aircraft are based at the field, comprising single and multi-engine piston aircraft, jets and helicopters. Scheduled airline service continues in the form of American Eagle regional jet flights to Dallas/Fort Worth, operated on behalf of American Airlines.
