Mesquite Metro Airport is a public use airport in Dallas County, Texas, 3 nmi east of the central business district of Mesquite. The airport is west of the border of Dallas County and Kaufman County. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, but this airport is HQZ to the FAA and has no IATA code.

History

The airport was built with private funding in 1975 as the Phil L. Hudson Municipal Airport and originally had a 4,000 by 50 foot (1,219 x 15 m) runway. In 1983, the city of Mesquite purchased the airport using grant money from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In 1985, additional federal grants allowed the city to enlarge the runway to 5,000 by 100 feet (1,524 x 30 m), extend the parallel taxiway and acquire more airport property. In 1992 the runway underwent refurbishment and was lengthened by about 1,000 feet (305 m) to its present length of 6,000 feet. In 2013, the airport added an 80 ft (24 m) tall air traffic control tower at a cost of US$2.8 million. It is permanently staffed by FAA contract air traffic controllers.

Facilities

Mesquite Metro Airport covers 448 acre at an elevation of 447 feet (136 m). Its single runway, 18/36, is 6,000 by 100 feet (1,829 x 30 m), concrete. In 2022, the airport had 103,642 aircraft operations, an average of 284 per day: 98% general aviation, 1% air taxi, and less than 1% military. 182 aircraft were then based at this airport: 151 single-engine, 20 multi-engine, 10 jet and 1 helicopter.

Accidents and incidents