George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IATA: IAH, ICAO: KIAH, FAA LID: IAH)[3] is an international airport in Houston, Texas, United States, serving the Greater Houston metropolitan area.

Highway 59 with direct access to the Hardy Toll Road expressway, George Bush Intercontinental Airport has scheduled flights to a large number of domestic and international destinations covering five continents.

The holding company for the land was named the Jet Era Ranch Corporation, but a typographical error transformed the words "Jet Era" into "Jetero" and the airport site subsequently became known as the Jetero airport site.

[10] In the late 1980s, Houston City Council considered a plan to rename the airport after Mickey Leland—an African-American U.S.

[14] International flights at this time were being flown by Pan American World Airways with ten nonstop flights a week operated with Boeing 707 jetliners to Mexico City; KLM Royal Dutch Airlines operating Douglas DC-8 jets four days a week to Amsterdam via an intermediate stop in Montreal; Braniff International with Boeing 727 services several times a week to Panama City, Panama; and Aeronaves de Mexico (now Aeroméxico) flying Douglas DC-9 jets to Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Mexico City several days a week.

[15][16][17][18] Texas International was also operating direct services to Mexico at this time with Douglas DC-9 jets to Monterrey and Convair 600 turboprop flights to Tampico and Veracruz.

By July 1983, the number of domestic and international air carriers serving Intercontinental had grown substantially.

[26] Metro Airlines was operating "cross-town" shuttle services with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops with up to seventeen round trip flights a day between IAH and the Clear Lake City STOLport located near the NASA Johnson Space Center and also up to nine round trip flights a day between the airport and Sugar Land Regional Airport as well as other flights to regional destinations in Texas and Louisiana.

Midway planned to develop a travel center for the airport's rental car facility.

Beyond the required buildings, the developer planned to add an office facility of between 20,000 and 40,000 square feet (1,900 and 3,700 m2) and additional retail space.

[34] In 2011, United Airlines began Boeing 777-200ER services to Lagos, Nigeria; this was the airport's first nonstop flight to the African continent.

[35] South African Airways previously operated nonstop Boeing 747SP services in 1983 between Houston and Amilcar Cabral International Airport in the Cape Verde islands off the coast of Africa as a refueling stop for its flights between Houston and Johannesburg, South Africa.

IAH became the first airport in North America to have nonstop flights to every inhabited continent in 2017, with the addition of Air New Zealand, but lost this claim when Atlas Air ended its nonstop flight to Luanda.

[41] In January 2019, Ethiopian Airlines became the latest international carrier to announce new service, three-times weekly, to Addis Ababa.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, or METRO, offers bus services available at the south side of Terminal C. The 102 Bush IAH Express serves the airport.

Previously, METRO also operated an express bus service known as Airport Direct, launched in the summer of 2008, which traveled from Downtown Houston to Terminal C via the HOV lane of the Eastex Freeway (I-69)/(US 59).

[58] Previously China Airlines, also a Taiwanese carrier, provided a shuttle bus service to Sugar Land and the Southwest Houston Chinatown.

[60] Carriers provide scheduled bus and shuttle services to locations from IAH to NRG Park/NRG Astrodome, Downtown Houston, Uptown, Greenway Plaza, the Texas Medical Center, hotels in the Westchase and Energy Corridor business districts, the city of College Station and William P. Hobby Airport.

Super Shuttle uses shared vans to provide services from George Bush Intercontinental Airport to the surrounding communities.

[52] Ed Carpenter's "Light Wings", a multicolored glass sculpture suspended below a skylight, adorns the Terminal A North Concourse.

The corridor leading to Terminal A displays Leamon Green's "Passing Through," a 200-foot (61 m) etched glass wall depicting airport travelers.

"Lights Spikes," designed by Jay Baker, was created for the 1990 G7 Summit when it was hosted by President George H. W. Bush in Houston.

The sculpture was relocated to the airport outside E Terminal after the meetings, from its original location in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center.

[65] The airport houses an on-site hotel, a Marriott, between Terminals B and C and is accessible via the landside inter-terminal train which runs every 3 minutes from 3:30 am to 12:30 am every day.