The IAH Airport Festival is an annual event sponsored by the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce. The event is held annually on a Saturday in early October at Houston's Intercontinental Airport, located north of the city. The event celebrates the airport's contributions to the local economy and is highly attended by airport and airline employees and their families, as well as others in the metro area who are interested in aviation.
I have attended this festival in 2001 and 2004. Typically it is held at either the Continental Express hangars off JFK Boulevard or the larger Continental Airlines hangars off Wright Road and Will Clayton Parkway. Parking is always free, but you'll need to follow the yellow "Event Parking" signs to the proper lot. Because this year's event was held at the Continental Airlines hangars across the street from the old rental car facilities, we were allowed to park in the old rental car lots. This was a big improvement over my previous trip to the festival, when we had to park in the City Economy Parking lot and take a special shuttle to the Continental Express hangar.
The festival costs $10 to attend if tickets are purchased in advance, or $15 at the door. With your admission you'll be entered into a series of drawings for free trips for two from several airlines (this year on Continental, Southwest, America West, US Airways, and Aeromexico), and coupons for a free lunch (hot dog or hamburger and chips). Nonalcoholic beverages are free, and beer is sold for about $3 a cup. In addition to the drawings for free trips, they also give away a variety of gift certificates to local businesses. The catch is you must be present to win, and drawings are held every 30 minutes. Your chances of winning are best if you arrive early and stay for the entire afternoon.
The festival usually has a variety of aircraft on display. This is a great opportunity to walk up to the planes and see how big some of them really are. Usually Continental Airlines and Continental Express will have a few planes out on the ramp (this year there was a 737-300 and ERJ-145), as our hometown airline is always one of the event’s sponsors. Unfortunately, Continental never has their planes open; I’ve always hoped they’d have one of the larger jets like a 767 or 777 open for visitors to walk through the plane, but that hasn’t happened in the years I’ve been to the festival. However, FedEx frequently has one of their cargo jets open for visitors to walk through. Cockpit visits on the FedEx trip are always popular for the kids in attendance. There are also usually some military and general aviation aircraft on display.
The IAH Festival is a fun event; however, I think the $15 ticket price is a little steep for what it is. If you’re going, definitely purchase tickets in advance because you’ll get a lot more for your money.