Port Arthur is on the list because HOU is reachable and busy. 145 scheduled nonstop destinations and 19 operating carriers mean the desk is rarely stuck for a routing, and 1 hour 57 minutes of road means you are rarely too far to take it. Those two facts together are the whole reason Port Arthur has a page of its own.
Open · United States desk · Port Arthur
On Board Courier, Port Arthur
Time critical hand carry assignments from Port Arthur. One consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature, 1 hour 57 minutes between your front door and the check in desk at HOU.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inPort Arthur, Texas
Nearest gateHOU · Houston
Drive to the aircraft152 km · 1 hour 57 minutes
Nonstop from HOU145 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
You will usually know the day before, sometimes only in the morning. The desk sends the routing out of HOU, the sealed consignment reaches you or you collect it, and the drive of 1 hour 57 minutes is timed backwards from the check in deadline rather than the departure. Where the routing runs through the Emirates it goes by way of ATL, on one ticket, with the connection booked long enough to be real.
Getting to the aircraft from Port Arthur
Measured door to terminal, Port Arthur to HOU is 152 km and 1 hour 57 minutes. That is the number the desk uses when it decides whether to call Port Arthur for a departure this evening.
At 1 hour 57 minutes the drive from Port Arthur is the risky half of the trip, so it is planned rather than assumed: an earlier departure from home, and where the flight is early, a room near HOU paid by the desk. A backup gate changes what can be promised out of Port Arthur. From Port Arthur, Houston George Bush is 2 hours 2 minutes away and flies to 197 airports nonstop, so the desk has somewhere to move a consignment when the first flight goes.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOU | Houston William P Hobby | 152 km | 1 hour 57 minutes | 145 |
| IAH | Houston George Bush | 161 km | 2 hours 2 minutes | 197 |
Port Arthur is a city of 55,000 people in Texas, and the clock there runs 9 hours behind the Emirates in summer and 10 in winter. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes. Only airports this site publishes a scheduled nonstop board for are listed, so a smaller field nearer Port Arthur may exist and still not appear in the table above.
What HOU reaches without a change
The relevant question about HOU is not how big it is but what it flies. 145 nonstop destinations across 8 countries, and the ones with real frequency are listed here.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAL | Dallas | Dallas Love Field | about 20 departures a day | 6 operators: Southwest Airlines, Japan Airlines, Alaska Airlines |
| ATL | Atlanta | Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson | about 8 departures a day | 2 operators: Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines |
| MDW | Chicago | Chicago Midway | about 7 departures a day | 1 operator: Southwest Airlines |
| DEN | Denver | Denver | about 7 departures a day | 1 operator: Southwest Airlines |
| LAS | Las Vegas | Las Vegas McCarran | about 7 departures a day | 2 operators: Southwest Airlines |
| BNA | Nashville | Nashville | about 6 departures a day | 2 operators: Southwest Airlines |
| DFW | Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas-Fort Worth | about 6 departures a day | 2 operators: American Airlines |
| MSY | New Orleans | New Orleans Louis Armstrong | about 6 departures a day | 2 operators: Southwest Airlines |
| MCO | Orlando | Orlando | about 6 departures a day | 2 operators: Southwest Airlines |
| PHX | Phoenix | Phoenix Sky Harbor | about 6 departures a day | 2 operators: Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines |
Counting every airport a courier in Port Arthur can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 257 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
What moves out of Port Arthur
This site publishes an industrial register for some airports and not for HOU. Rather than invent one, the honest statement is that Port Arthur produces the traffic every working city produces: signed originals, spare parts, samples and small valuables that missed a cut off.
Why a courier in Port Arthur is useful to the desk
Most of what the desk moves out of Texas is small, sealed and late. The constraint is never the size, it is finding a person near enough to HOU. Port Arthur is near enough: 1 hour 57 minutes to HOU, on a board with 145 nonstop destinations.
There is no nonstop between HOU and the Emirates, and this page says so rather than implying otherwise. From Port Arthur the best single change is Atlanta (ATL), and ATL to AUH is flown by Etihad Airways, about one departure a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 18h 18m gate to gate, so an assignment between Port Arthur and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
The nearest other cities on the United States list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Port Arthur
Beaumont27 km away, IAH in 1 hour 48 minutesBaytown101 km away, HOU in 42 minutesGalveston105 km away, HOU in 56 minutesLeague City119 km away, HOU in 28 minutesThe Woodlands152 km away, IAH in 38 minutesSugar Land166 km away, HOU in 39 minutesCypress169 km away, IAH in 46 minutesLufkin178 km away, IAH in 2 hours 25 minutesHuntsville, Texas180 km away, IAH in 1 hour 20 minutesLafayette189 km away, MSY in 2 hours 24 minutesCollege Station244 km away, IAH in 1 hour 50 minutesBaton Rouge272 km away, MSY in 1 hour 20 minutes
All 370 United States cities are listed on the United States courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of HOU and the other airports listed above, between the United States and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 1 hour 57 minutes drive to HOU. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach HOU, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Port Arthur list
01How far is Port Arthur from HOU?
About 1 hour 57 minutes, 152 km by road. The desk has that number for every city on the list and uses it to decide who gets called for a departure out of HOU tonight.
02What can I reach from Port Arthur without a change of aircraft?
HOU serves 145 airports nonstop across 8 countries with 19 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Port Arthur can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 257 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Port Arthur to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Port Arthur the best single change is Atlanta (ATL), and ATL to AUH is flown by Etihad Airways, about one departure a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 18h 18m gate to gate, so an assignment between Port Arthur and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. The desk is in Dubai and the company is Emirati, but the courier list is worldwide and Port Arthur is on it. Where you live changes which assignments you are shown, not whether you qualify.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. The Port Arthur list is free to join and free to stay on. The only money that moves from you to us is the AED 199 Academy, paid once, and it comes back on top of the fee for your first completed assignment.
06How is my fee agreed?
One assignment out of HOU, one fee, agreed in advance. The 1 hour 57 minutes you spend driving there is part of what that figure is calculated on.
Apply to fly out of HOU
If you can be at HOU within 1 hour 57 minutes and you have a passport with room in it, the rest is a conversation.
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