Northwest Florida Regional Airport

Northwest Florida Regional Airport
Northwest Florida Regional Airport; Eglin Air Force Base
	USGS aerial photo as of 15 February 1999
IATA: VPS – ICAO: KVPS – FAA LID: VPS VPS Location of the Airport in Florida
Summary
Airport type	Public / Military
Owner/Operator	United States Air Force
Serves	Fort Walton Beach, Destin
Location	Valparaiso, Florida
Elevation AMSL	87 ft / 27 m
Coordinates	30°29′00″N 086°31′31″W / 30.4833333°N 86.52528°W
Website	www.FlyVPS.com
Runways
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations	126,060
	Source: Federal Aviation Administration

Northwest Florida Regional Airport (IATA: VPS, ICAO: KVPS, FAA LID: VPS) is an airport located within Eglin Air Force Base, near Valparaiso and Fort Walton Beach in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. No private aircraft are permitted to leave out of or arrive at Northwest Florida Regional, so Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport is used for non-commercial operations. The airport was formerly known as Okaloosa Regional Airport until its name was changed in September 2008.

Northwest Florida Regional Airport is served by six airlines providing non-stop service across the southern United States. In 2008, the FAA recorded over 373,808 enplanements at of the airport.^[2]

[edit] History

1957: The Okaloosa County Air Terminal opened on Eglin Air Force Base in building 89 with 3 personnel (Airport Manager, Security and Admin Support. Southern Airways was the only air carrier. Passengers would enter the base through the East Gate adjacent to Valparaiso, thus the airport code of VPS was born.

1968: Southern Airways began flying four DC-9 aircraft daily out of VPS. Air New Orleans began operations with service to New Orleans.

The newly constructed James E. Plew Terminal Building of the Okaloosa Air Terminal, located on State Road 85, opened its doors in mid-February 1975, with a dedication ceremony held on Saturday, 22 February. Congressman Bob Sikes and Southern Airways President Frank Hulse were some of the guest speakers. ^[3] The 32,000 sq ft (3,000 m2) facility was constructed at a cost of $1.7 million. Financing for the entire facility was through federal, state, and local money. Federal grants totaled $472,000, state $80,000, Okaloosa County bond sale $1.1 million, and Southern Airways $190,000. First year enplaned passengers totaled 97,000 with Southern Airways as the sole airline with 12 departing flights daily.

November 2004: The current Northwest Florida Regional Airport opened its doors following a major expansion program including additional public parking and aircraft parking apron, a second parallel taxiway, landscaping and a new 110,000 sq ft (10,000 m²) passenger terminal.

January 2008: Broke ground on the Consolidated Rental Car Service Facility located on 22 acres (89,000 m²) east of the airport. This facility will have offices for all 5 rental car companies as well as rental car service facilities with hydraulic lifts, automated car washes, gas pumps and vacuum islands and a consolidated fuel farm for both aviation and unleaded gasoline. A cargo facility and new offices for airport maintenance will also be built to the east of the terminal and are included in the project.

May 2009: Opened Consolidated Rental Car Service Facility on new 22-acre (89,000 m²) leasehold just east of the main terminal. This $14M project came in on time and under budget and was funded entirely with rental car user fees.

[edit] Facilities and aircraft

Gates at the Northwest Florida Regional Airport.

Northwest Florida Regional Airport and Eglin AFB share two runways: 12/30 with a 12,005 x 300 ft (3,659 x 91 m) asphalt/concrete surface and 1/19 with a 10,012 x 300 ft (3,052 x 91 m) asphalt pavement. For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2006, the airport had 126,060 aircraft operations, an average of 345 per day: 71% military, 19% scheduled commercial, 8% general aviation and 2% air taxi.^[1]

The airport has a 110,000ft² airport passenger terminal building with three second-level gates with passenger jet ways and three ground-level commuter gates with regional jet boarding bridges

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Northwest Airlines parked at Northwest Florida Regional Airport

Airlines	Destinations
American Eagle	Dallas/Fort Worth
Delta Air Lines	Atlanta
Delta Connection operated by ExpressJet	Atlanta
United Express operated by ExpressJet	Houston-Intercontinental
US Airways Express operated by Air Wisconsin	Charlotte, Washington-National [begins March 25, 2012]
US Airways Express operated by PSA Airlines	Charlotte

[edit] Top Destinations

**Top ten busiest domestic routes out of VPS**
(July 2010 - June 2011) ^[4]
Rank	City	Passengers	Carriers
1	Atlanta, GA	165,000	Delta, Vision
2	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX	70,000	American
3	Charlotte, NC	48,000	US Airways
4	Memphis, TN	36,000	Delta
5	Houston-Intercontinental, TX	36,000	Continental
6	Louisville, KY	6,000	Vision
7	Little Rock, AR	4,000	Vision
8	Knoxville, TN	4,000	Vision
9	Orlando-Sanford, FL	4,000	-
10	St. Petersburg, FL	3,000	-