Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport (KLBX) is a county-owned public-use airfield in Brazoria County, Texas, sited a few miles southwest of Angleton and just north of Lake Jackson in the Greater Houston area. It offers a single long concrete runway with an ILS approach, making it a useful and interesting stop for VFR and IFR pilots exploring the Gulf Coast region south of Houston's Class B airspace.
Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport, known to the FAA as LBX and carrying the ICAO identifier KLBX, is a county-owned public-use aerodrome serving Angleton and Lake Jackson in Brazoria County, Texas. Formerly named Brazoria County Airport, it was renamed effective 1 October 2010 following a vote by the Brazoria County Commissioners' Court in March of that year. The field is of particular interest to visiting pilots for its long, ILS-equipped runway, its role as a base for offshore helicopter operations serving the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas industry, and its colourful history of scheduled airline service in the 1970s and 1980s.
The airport lies in unincorporated Brazoria County, Texas, within the Greater Houston area, about four miles (6.4 km) southwest of the central business district of Angleton and north of Lake Jackson. It sits south of Houston's controlled airspace complex, and Houston Approach/Departure provides radar service to and from the field on 134.45 MHz.
The airport has a single physical runway, 17/35, aligned north-south. It is 6,997 feet long, has a hard (concrete) surface, and is lit for night operations. Runway 17 is equipped with an ILS approach.
Radio services include Houston Approach/Departure on 134.45 MHz for arrivals and departures, an ASOS weather broadcast on 119.925 MHz, a clearance delivery frequency on 125.2 MHz, and a combined CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 123 MHz for local traffic advisories and airport communications. Runway 17 offers an ILS instrument approach for pilots flying in instrument conditions.
Pilots should monitor and use the CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 123 MHz to self-announce intentions and coordinate with other traffic when Houston Approach services are not required, given the field's status as an uncontrolled airport for local operations.
The airport lies north of Lake Jackson and southwest of Angleton, with the built-up areas of both towns providing useful reference points when inbound from the north or south along the Gulf Coast corridor.
The airport was previously known as Brazoria County Airport before being renamed Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport in 2010. It replaced the older Lake Jackson Dow Airport, which had served the area from a site nearer Lake Jackson's town centre until the new airport opened to the north of the city. In February 1976 Houston Metro Airlines operated six weekday nonstop de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter flights from the old Lake Jackson Dow Airport to Houston Intercontinental, plus two daily flights to Victoria. After the present airport opened, Metro Airlines (later renamed from Houston Metro Airlines) continued services with Twin Otters and occasionally larger Short 330 commuter turboprops; by April 1981 it was flying six weekday Twin Otter services to Houston Intercontinental. Royale Airlines later took over service with Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante and Beechcraft Model 99 turboprops, operating as a Continental Airlines feeder until Royale's bankruptcy ended the operation. Other carriers over the years included Amistad Airlines, Texas Airlines, Comair with Canadair CRJ regional jets, and Aerodynamics Inc. The old Lake Jackson Dow Airport was also the scene of a hijacking incident on 12 July 1972, when a hijacked National Airlines Boeing 727-200 made an emergency landing there, followed by a brief standoff with law enforcement. The airport's single runway was closed in December 2009 for a major reconstruction that replaced its former asphalt surface with concrete, with aircraft using the main taxiway for takeoffs and landings during the closure; larger aircraft, including an Airbus ACJ (A319) shuttle for Dow Chemical, were diverted to Houston's William P. Hobby Airport during this period. The rebuilt runway reopened in July 2010.
Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport remains an active general aviation field, recording 77,981 aircraft operations in the twelve months to January 2021, an average of 214 per day, of which the great majority were general aviation movements. Ninety-eight aircraft were based there at that time, including single and multi-engine piston types, jets and helicopters. Bristow U.S. LLC, one of the largest Part 135 commercial helicopter operators, has operated a base at the airport supporting offshore oil and gas flights into the Gulf of Mexico, historically flying turbine types including the AgustaWestland AW139, Bell 206L-4, Bell 407, Eurocopter EC135, Sikorsky S-76C++ and Sikorsky S-92. The on-site dining facility has changed hands and names over the years, most recently operating as the Runway Cafe under a seafood-influenced menu from 2014. The airport operates as a full-service FBO facility offering pilot amenities to visitors to Brazoria County and the Houston area.
