The Beach Daytona Beach’s beach was known for having a smooth, hard, and relatively clean surface for motor vehicles, which would frequently race on it. Pilots soon realized the effectiveness of the compact sand and began using the beach as a runway. Hangars were built later, and aircraft service was provided on the beach. This former airport is one of only two beach airports that were successful. The other,
Old Orchard Beach in
Maine, was the starting point for at least five
transatlantic flights during the 1920s and 1930s. The first flight on the beach was in 1906 by
Charles K. Hamilton, using Israel Ludlow's
glider. The glider was pulled by an automobile and actually took place in Ormond. He went as high as on his first attempt, and on the second, before crashing into a flagpole and surviving with a bruised knee. while others were used by the city aviation department that later became the current aviation authority.
Post-war expansion Ownership reverted to the city of Daytona Beach in 1946. The November 1950 chart shows Runways 6, 10, 16 and 21, all 3990 to 4140 feet long, forming an asymmetric asterisk. The April 1957
OAG lists eight departures a day on
Eastern Airlines and four on
National Airlines. A new passenger terminal was completed on the north side of the airport in 1958, along with a control tower. Jet flights began in December 1967 with Eastern operating
Boeing 727s on a round trip routing of
Miami (MIA) -
Melbourne (MLB) - Daytona Beach (DAB) -
Baltimore (BAL) -
New York Kennedy (JFK). Also in 1967, National was serving the airport with
Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprops with nonstop flights to Jacksonville and Orlando as well as direct, no change of plane service to Boston, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Miami, Tampa and West Palm Beach. The 1968
AOPA Directory lists DAB's longest runway as being 5700 ft; however, this information may have not been up to date as the 1969 Directory lists a 7500 ft runway. Runways 6 and 16 were 150' wide, the two diagonal runways were closed, and a 3100' x 75' training runway had been constructed parallel to the main runway on the south side of the field. By 1969, National was operating
Boeing 727 jet service from the airport with nonstop flights to Miami and Jacksonville as well as direct service to Washington D.C.
National Airport and New York
JFK Airport. Also in 1969,
Volusia County took over management of the airport from the City of Daytona Beach and renamed it Daytona Beach Regional Airport. In the following decades, Embry-Riddle expanded its campus on the northeast side of the field. According to the February 1, 1976 edition of the
Official Airline Guide (OAG),
Eastern Airlines was operating flights from the airport with
Lockheed L-1011 Tristar wide body jetliners on a routing of Daytona Beach - Atlanta - Omaha - Portland, OR - Seattle. There were also
Boeing 727-100,
727-200 and
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets with nonstop flights from Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Miami and New York's
LaGuardia Airport as well as direct one stop or two stop flights from Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York's
JFK Airport,
Newark Airport, Raleigh–Durham, and Washington D.C.
National Airport (now
Reagan Airport). This same OAG also lists flights operated by
National Airlines with
Boeing 727-100 and
727-200 jetliners nonstop from Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando with direct one stop service from New York, Newark and Tampa. By the mid-1980s, a midfield control tower had been completed and the airport was being served by Eastern,
Delta Air Lines and
Continental Airlines. During the 1980s and 1990s when
American Airlines was operating a hub in Raleigh–Durham, the carrier flew several daily flights to
Raleigh–Durham International Airport. American ended service to Daytona Beach in 1994 as its Raleigh–Durham hub was shut down but then returned to the airport following its merger with
US Airways in 2015. In 1992, a larger two-level terminal opened, and the previous terminal was converted to an international arrivals facility. These new buildings, along with extension of two runways to 10,500' and 6001', justified a name change to Daytona Beach International Airport. According to the September 15, 1994 edition of the OAG, three airlines were operating mainline jet service into the airport: Delta, Continental, and
USAir. Delta was flying seven nonstop flights a day to Atlanta with
Boeing 737-200 and
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jetliners, Continental was operating one daily nonstop to
Newark Airport with an MD-80 jet and USAir was flying daily nonstops to Charlotte three times a day with
Boeing 737-300 and
737-400 jetliners. USAir was renamed "
US Airways" and then merged into
American Airlines in 2015. There were also commuter propjet flights at this time from the airport nonstop to Miami flown by
Gulfstream International Airlines with
Beechcraft 1900 turboprops as well as nonstop service to Orlando operated by
Delta Connection and
USAir Express with Beechcraft 1900,
Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia and
Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner turboprops. In November 1995, German air carrier
LTU International began service to Düsseldorf. The flight was discontinued in October 1997. The only other scheduled direct flights out of the country from the airport were later operated to the Bahamas with small
Beechcraft twin turboprops flown by
Vintage Props and Jets, a commuter airline. US Airways subsequently merged with
American and
Southwest still does not serve Daytona Beach at the present time.
JetBlue began flying new nonstop service to New York
John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 7, 2016, however, this operation ceased on January 7, 2019, three years to the date of their inaugural flight in 2016. On January 17, 2019,
Silver Airways began nonstop daily service to
Fort Lauderdale Airport with
SAAB 340. The route was made possible in part from taxpayer-funded incentives from the
Volusia County government. Canadian airline
Sunwing Airlines flew between
Toronto and Daytona Beach in 2019, but it no longer does. The route had been made possible in part from taxpayer-funded incentives from the
Volusia County government. ==Facilities==