Everything is bigger in Texas – even the statistics.

The state’s fully integrated and sophisticated transportation network makes it a destination of choice for distribution and logistics.

The state boasts 300 airports, more than any state in the nation, including 27 commercial airports. Dallas-Fort Worth International is the world's fourth-largest airport. Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport offers service to more destinations in Mexico than any other facility in the United States.

But airports aren't the only aspect of the Texas transportation system that is big. The state also has the largest highway and railway systems in place in the United States in terms of mileage. A network of Foreign Trade Zones spread throughout the state provides tax and other cost advantages for bringing goods in from foreign markets, and the state includes 26 border entry points providing access to Mexico and Latin America.

Excellent highways and railroads help make Texas a destination of choice for distribution and logistics, providing companies with efficient and cost-effective ways to ship and receive raw materials. In fact, Expansion Management magazine states that six Texas locations – Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth/Arlington, Houston, Laredo and San Antonio – are among the top metro areas in the country for transportation and distribution.

From the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, for example, trucks can reach 93 percent of the nation's population within 48 hours, and nearly 40 percent within 24 hours. It also helps that every mile of federal and state highway in Texas is paved.

The railroad has been a big part of Texas since 1853, when cowboy wranglers began herding livestock into freight cars. Today, 45 railroads operate in Texas on almost 12,000 miles of track, and there are 26 border points that provide direct access to the markets in Mexico and Latin America.

The Texas Gulf Coast is home to 29 seaports. The Port of Houston is the nation's busiest for foreign tonnage and second in overall tonnage. Three of the top U.S. seaports by cargo volume are located in Texas, which has 13 deep-water ports with channels at least 30 feet deep, including Corpus Christi, which ranks sixth in the country for tonnage.

“We provide quick access to the Gulf of Mexico and then the entire United States inland waterway system,” says Patricia Cardenas, community affairs manager for the Port of Corpus Christi. “And in 2010, we are about to get even bigger, just like everything in Texas.”

Corpus Christi has embarked upon a channel-dredging project in 2010 that will ultimately allow the port to accommodate heavier freighters.

“Right now, about 90 percent of our shipping business is related to the petrochemical industry, but we want to diversify – and that means dredging our La Quinta channel,” Cardenas says. “Once completed, it's going to make Corpus Christi even bigger in importance than it already is.”