You'd think that in big places people would figure out to fly from point A to point B, but Texas poses rather a contradiction to that idea, even with the number of good airports. I'm sometimes surprised at the number of people from around here who do drive from one corner to the other rather than flying. Around here we tend to use a formula to figure out if it's worth driving or flying:

an hour to drive to the airport and to park
plus
an hour at the gate before the flight leaves
plus
the duration of the flight (can be up to a couple of hours within the state)
plus
the time getting out of the airport and getting a rental car
plus
driving to the place you were actually headed that is near this second airport.

If it takes less than five or six hours to drive there (at 75+ miles per hour on the open highway) then it isn't worth flying. If to fly you leave the house at 6am and aren't going to arrive at your destination until at least noon, and you (like many drivers here) when driving can average 80 on the highway, that's 480 miles you could have covered in that flying time. You might as well do it in your car and save the money for the rental car, and even if you have to drive a littler longer than it would take to fly, you have the comfort of your own car and your extra luggage you can take. It's a lot cheaper still to drive, even with gas prices rising.

Same reasoning applies for remote destinations with no airports. If you have to fly from your home area to another airport and then drive for hours to get where you're going (such as Big Bend or the Guadalupe Peak), you might as well have gone there more directly by driving straight from home.

Flying makes the most sense if your vehicle isn't up to long road trips and the rental car will be more reliable.

SRS