- Northwest Florida Regional Airport
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Northwest Florida Regional Airport
Eglin Air Force Base
USGS aerial photo as of 15 February 1999 IATA: VPS – ICAO: KVPS – FAA LID: VPS Location of the Airport in Florida
VPSSummary Airport type Public / Military Owner/Operator United States Air Force Serves Fort Walton Beach, Destin Location Valparaiso, Florida Hub for Vision Airlines Elevation AMSL 87 ft / 27 m Coordinates 30°29′00″N 086°31′31″W / 30.4833333°N 86.52528°W Website Runways Direction Length Surface ft m 12/30 12,005 3,659 Asphalt 1/19 10,012 3,052 Asphalt Statistics (2006) Aircraft operations 126,060 Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1] 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, and is a base city for Vision Airlines. In 2008, the FAA recorded over 373,808 enplanements at of the airport.[2]
Contents
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.
March 13, 1975: The Okaloosa Air Terminal located on State Road 85 opened its doors. 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.
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
Airlines and destinations
Northwest Airlines parked at Northwest Florida Regional AirportAirlines Destinations American Eagle Dallas/Fort Worth Continental Express operated by ExpressJet Airlines Houston-Intercontinental Delta Air Lines Atlanta Delta Connection operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines Atlanta Delta Connection operated by Pinnacle Airlines Atlanta US Airways Express operated by Air Wisconsin Charlotte US Airways Express operated by PSA Airlines Charlotte Vision Airlines Atlanta, Louisville Top Destinations
Top ten busiest domestic routes out of VPS
(July 2010 - June 2011) [3]Rank City Passengers Carriers 1 
Atlanta, GA165,000 Delta, Vision 2 
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX70,000 American 3 
Charlotte, NC48,000 US Airways 4 
Memphis, TN36,000 Delta 5 Houston-Intercontinental, TX36,000 Continental 6 
Louisville, KY6,000 Vision 7 
Little Rock, AR4,000 Vision 8 Knoxville, TN4,000 Vision 9 
Orlando-Sanford, FL4,000 - 10 St. Petersburg, FL3,000 - References
- ^ a b FAA Airport Master Record for VPS (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2008-07-31.
- ^ "Commercial Service Airports(Primary and Non-primary), Calendar Year 2008". Federal Aviation Administration. December 17, 2009. http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy08_primary_np_comm.pdf. Retrieved May 15, 2011. "Rank 137; identified as "Eglin AFB""
- ^ http://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=VPS&Airport_Name=Valparaiso,%20FL:%20Northwest%20Florida%20Regional&carrier=FACTS
External links
- Northwest Florida Regional Airport, official site
- Eglin Air Force Base, official site
- Northwest Florida Regional Airport Shuttle Service., Ground Transportation to VPS
- FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective 20 October 2011
- FAA Terminal Procedures for VPS, effective 20 October 2011
- Resources for this airport:
- AirNav airport information for KVPS
- ASN accident history for VPS
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart, Terminal Procedures for KVPS
Categories:- Airports in Florida
- Transportation in Okaloosa County, Florida
- Buildings and structures in Okaloosa County, Florida
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