San Marcos Regional Airport is a public use airport located in Caldwell County, Texas, United States. It is 4 nmi east of the central business district of San Marcos, a city that is mostly in Hays County. The airport is owned by the City of San Marcos and operated by Texas Aviation Partners. It is located east of the border of Caldwell County and Hays County. Before it was operated as a civilian airport it was known as Gary Air Force Base. Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, San Marcos Regional Airport is assigned HYI by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.

History

Military

It was the site of the Gary Army Airfield

Civilian

Organized San Marcans fought to save the base, and on November 20, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced in a speech at his alma mater, Southwest Texas State College that the abandoned Camp Gary would be the site of a new federal vocational training facility called Job Corps. Today it's known as the Gary Job Corps Center, the largest in the nation. In 2014, the airport was selected to be the location for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's regional fly-in.

Facilities and aircraft

San Marcos Regional Airport covers an area of 1,303 acre at an elevation of 595 feet (181 m) above mean sea level. It has three asphalt paved runways: 8/26 is 6,330 by 100 feet (1,929 x 30 m), 13/31 is 5,601 by 150 feet (1,707 x 46 m) and 17/35 is 5,214 by 100 feet (1,589 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending June 5, 2023, the airport had 91,849 aircraft operations, an average of 251 per day: 98% general aviation, 2% military and <1% air taxi. At that time there were 219 aircraft based at this airport: 156 single-engine, 42 multi-engine, 14 jet, and 7 helicopters.

Accidents and incidents