Business View Magazine | September 2019

78 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019 V alley International Airport is a public use, commercial service airport located in the City of Harlingen, in Cameron County, Texas, in the center of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). “Like many airports in the State of Texas, it started out as an Army airfield,” recounts Marv Esterly, Valley International’s Director of Aviation. “It was actually a gunnery school back in 1941. After World War II, it morphed into Harlingen Air Force Base. In 1964, it became surplus property and was picked up by the City of Harlingen, which assumed control of the Airport in 1967. In 1989, there was a ground breaking for the new terminal building. It was completed in 1991, and the Airport has never looked back.” Operated by a nine-member board made up of local businessmen and women appointed by the mayor, Valley International Airport is self-sustaining, operating in the black, and without the support of any tax dollars from the city. “We’re also debt-free ever since the terminal building was paid for years ago,” says Esterly. “We’re really sitting in SERVING THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY VALLEY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT