Houston Mayor Annise Parker is planning to announce Wednesday morning that the city and Southwest Airlines have come to an agreement on how to finance a $100 million expansion of Hobby Airport to accommodate international flights, according to a City Hall source.

The agreement is subject to approval by City Council. The mayor said last week that if the city and Southwest could negotiate a memorandum of understanding, she intended to put Hobby expansion on the May 30 Council agenda.

No details of the agreement have yet been divulged. But several City Hall sources say Parker has scheduled a news conference at the Southwest ticket counter at Hobby Airport.

Southwest is proposing adding five gates and a Federal Inspection Services facility at Hobby. If it gets city permission to build and Federal Aviation Administration approval, it plans to start flying from Houston to Mexico and to the Caribbean in 2015.

Houston Airport Director Mario Diaz has suggested that a possible way to pay for the expansion is by raising by $1.50 the per-ticket facility fee charged to every passenger who takes off from Hobby, on Southwest and the other airlines that fly from HOU.





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