Sugar Land Regional Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located in Sugar Land, Texas (USA), southwest of the central business district of Houston. Founded privately in the early 1950s as Hull Field, it was renamed in 1990, as Sugar Land Municipal Airport when acquired by the city. As of 2009 it is the fourth-largest airport within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area and serves as a "reliever" of traffic to this airport. It handles approximately 200 aircraft operations per day during typical years, which include corporate business jet and turboprop flights. The airport today serves the area's general aviation (GA) aircraft, serving corporate, governmental, and private clientele. It opened a new Terminal in 2006 with a GA complex, including 99 T-hangars in six buildings. The City of Sugar Land maintains Cullinan Park, which occupies of land directly north and west of the Sugar Land Regional Airport, blocking expansion. The airport is surrounded by Sugar Land homes, and there is a highway and rail road track directly south of the airport, which also block its expansion. The former Central Unit, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison for males, was closed in 2011. It occupied land zoned for airport expansion. History Dr. Donald "Doc" Hull was an oral surgeon who established a dental program for the Texas Department of Corrections in the early 1950s. Hull, who commuted across Southeast Texas to provide dental care to prisoners, originally operated aircraft to South Houston Airport and Sam Houston Airport. As it expanded, the City of Houston forced those airports to close. The former Sam Houston Airport was annexed as part of Houston's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) and became the Westbury area. Hull decided to develop a regional airport more distant from Houston but to serve the area. In 1952, Hull landed his biplane in a field near Sugar Land. Afterward, with a loan from a friend, Hull purchased the property and developed a small airport. The City of Sugar Land purchased Hull Field on December 18, 1990, and renamed the airport as "Sugar Land Municipal Airport." The City of Sugar Land opened an NFCT (non-federal control tower) that it funds and operates. This control tower manages traffic within of Sugar Land Airport from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily. Past airline service Several commuter airlines operated scheduled passenger service into Sugar Land Regional over the years. In the fall of 1979, Commutair was flying a