Jim Wimberly · President
Fifty years on the field.
From municipal airport management to the executive ranks of Southwest Airlines, Jim Wimberly has spent a career understanding how aviation works from the ground up.
Where the philosophy came from
Airports. Airlines. Back to the field.
Jim Wimberly’s approach to airport management was shaped over decades on both sides of the runway. He learned the business first from the airport side, then at airline scale, before bringing that experience full circle back to general aviation in Texas.
- Act IAirports
Houston · Hobby · Ellington
Jim studied aviation management, began his airport career in Waco, and later joined the City of Houston Aviation Department. He went on to manage William P. Hobby Airport and oversee operations at both Hobby and Ellington, building an early understanding of the people, systems, and decisions that keep an airport running.
- Act IIAirline
Southwest Airlines
Jim joined Southwest Airlines in 1985 and spent roughly two decades in senior operating leadership. His responsibilities ultimately spanned flight and ground operations, maintenance and engineering, safety, airport security, facilities, fuel, environmental affairs, and operational planning.
Just as important, those years reinforced a leadership philosophy centered on people, accountability, service, and giving teams the support they need to do their best work.
- Act IIIBack to the field
Texas Aviation Partners · San Marcos
TAP was established in 2007, giving Jim an opportunity to bring decades of airport and airline experience back to general aviation. In 2010, TAP began managing San Marcos Regional Airport, where the lessons learned at airline scale could be applied to the daily realities, relationships, and long-term development of a growing public airport.
Early airport years
Learn the field first.
An education built around aviation management
Jim earned a BBA in Aviation Management from the University of Texas Permian Basin in 1975. His first airport assignment was at Madison-Cooper Airport in Waco. It placed the work close to the pavement: an airport as an operating place, not an abstract transportation asset.
Houston, Hobby, and Ellington
In 1977, he joined the City of Houston Aviation Department. By 1980, he was Airport Manager at William P. Hobby Airport. His responsibilities later expanded to include both Hobby and Ellington.
Those years established the first principle behind TAP. An airport is several things at once: a public asset, a transportation system, a workplace, an operating business, and a long-term piece of civic infrastructure. Every plan eventually has to hold up against the realities of the field.
Southwest Airlines
Operating discipline at scale.
Jim joined Southwest Airlines in 1985 as Vice President of Ground Operations and Emergency Director. Over roughly two decades, he served alongside Herb Kelleher and moved into executive operating leadership during a defining period of growth for the airline, retiring as Chief Operating Officer.
- Flight operations
- Ground operations
- Maintenance and engineering
- Safety and airport security
- Properties and facilities
- Fuel administration
- Environmental affairs
- Operational planning
Southwest matters to the TAP story because it exposed Jim to the discipline of a large, interconnected operation and shaped his leadership style. Aircraft, crews, stations, maintenance, facilities, fuel, safety, security, and planning could not be treated as separate ideas. Each decision changed conditions somewhere else in the system, reinforcing a leadership approach grounded in people, accountability, service, and giving teams the support they need to do their best work.
Back to general aviation
Bring the lessons home.
Texas Aviation Partners
Texas Aviation Partners was established in 2007. The firm carried airline-scale operating discipline back into municipal and regional airport work, where public accountability, constrained resources, land decisions, tenant needs, infrastructure, and long timelines meet.
The point was never to import a corporate airline identity. It was to apply a practiced understanding of operations to airports that need both daily attention and a credible plan for what comes next.
San Marcos Regional Airport
TAP began managing San Marcos Regional Airport for the City of San Marcos on October 1, 2010.
San Marcos brought the career arc full circle: airport, airline, airport. The work joins day-to-day management with capital planning, agency coordination, tenant relationships, business recruitment, land use, and public communication. Lessons learned at scale are applied one field decision at a time.
See the San Marcos operating record