Naples Airport (Florida)
Naples Airport , formerly known as Naples Municipal Airport, is a public use airport located two nautical miles (4 km) northeast of the central business district of Naples, the most populous city and county seat of Collier County, Florida. It is owned by the Naples Airport Authority. The airport is home to flight schools, air charter operators, car rental agencies, and corporate aviation and non-aviation businesses. The airport is also a central location for public services, including fire/rescue services, mosquito control, the Collier County Sheriff's Aviation Unit and other community services. During fiscal year 2017–2018 , the airport serviced more than 112,000 operations. The airport currently has no scheduled commercial service, and is used almost exclusively for general aviation. History. The facility was established in 1942 as Naples Army Airfield by the United States Army Air Forces. It was initially assigned to the Southeast Training Center (later Eastern Flying Training Command), and provided basic (level 1) flight training to flight cadets by Embry-Riddle Co; Fairchild PT-19s were the primary trainers used. Along with the flight training, it was a sub-base to Buckingham Army Airfield for flexible gunnery training, which the 75th Flying Training Wing  supervised. It was disactivated in November 1945 and turned over to the War Assets Administration for conveyance to civil control as a public airport. The Naples Airdrome was returned to the city of Naples and Collier County in 1947, after the military deemed it no longer necessary. The airport was managed by John Zate, a pilot and Naples resident. Provincetown-Boston Airlines began scheduled service to Miami International Airport in the 1950s, and managed the airport for several years until a municipal airport authority was created in 1969. The airport also historically had scheduled service to Orlando, Tampa, St. Pete –Clearwater, Miami and Key West under PBA in the late 1970s. Traffic at the airport peaked in 1980, when more than 195,000 passengers used the airport, but fell in the mid 1980s due to the opening of the much larger Southwest Florida International Airport in nearby Fort Myers. The airport code APF derives from "alternate Page Field" - which is a reference to Page Field in Fort Myers. The airport experienced a rebound in traffic during the mid-1990s, with 173,000 passengers and seven airlines in 1995. Passenger numbers dipped when American Eagle ceased scheduled service to Miami in 2001, and dipped  even further following the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2003, US Airways Express ceased its service from Naples to Tampa. Atlantic Southeast Airlines operated Delta Connection flights between Naples and Atlanta from 2004 to 2007 with a revenue guarantee from the city, but ended the service after retiring its fleet of 40-seat aircraft, again leaving the airport without scheduled service. Yellow Air Taxi had flights to Fort Lauderdale and Key West, but the service was ended in December 2008. Elite Airways also began scheduled service to the airport in February 2016, with flights to Portland (ME), Newark, Vero Beach , and Melbourne (FL), but ended in March 2017 due to low passenger counts. In December 2018, the airport authority changed the facility's name from Naples Municipal Airport to Naples Airport. They also changed the airport's logo to a more modern one. Facilities and aircraft. Naples Airport covers an area of 732 acres (296 ha) at an elevation of 8 feet (2 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 05/23 measuring 6,600 by 150 feet (2,012 x 46 m) and 14/32 measuring 5,000 by 100 ft (1,524 x 30 m). It also has one turf  runway designated SW/NE which measures 1,850 by 100 ft (564 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending September 30, 2017, the airport had 95,018 aircraft operations, an average of 260 per day: (61530+19540)/95018*100 round 1% general aviation, 13662/95018*100 round 1% air taxi, 191/95018*100 round 1% military and 95/95018*100 round 1% airline. At that time, there were 304 aircraft based at this airport: 189/304*100 round 1% single-engine, 52/304*100 round 1% multi-engine, 46/304*100 round 1% jet and 17/304*100 round 1% helicopter. The airport has two terminals: one  for passengers, and the other for General aviation. Charter airlines like ExecAir, baggage claim, boarding gates, security, and car rental agencies are located in the passenger terminal. There is also a military museum with WWII artifacts and memorabilia. The car rental agencies offered are Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Thrifty and Alamo. The general aviation is a two-story terminal used for personal flights, which also houses car rental agencies. External links.