The facility was established in 1942 as
Naples Army Air Field by the
United States Army Air Forces. 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 also historically had scheduled nonstop service from
Miami,
Orlando,
Tampa,
St. Pete–Clearwater,
Fort Lauderdale,
Fort Myers and
Key West during the late 1970s operated by PBA with
Douglas DC-3 and
Martin 4-0-4 prop aircraft and also by
Mackey International Airlines with
Convair prop aircraft. 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.
Piedmont Airlines (1948-1989) was operating scheduled passenger jet service from the airport in 1988 with nonstop
Fokker F28 Fellowship flights to
Tampa.; however, by 1989 Piedmont was no longer serving Naples. According to the April 2, 1995 edition of the
Official Airline Guide (OAG), six airlines were operating a combined total of 30 flights every weekday into the airport with nonstop service from Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Key West all flown with commuter turboprop or small piston engine prop aircraft. At this time, the OAG listed service into APF operated by
American Eagle with the
Short 360,
Cape Air with
Cessna aircraft,
Continental Express (operated by
GP Express Airlines) with the
Beechcraft 1900,
Delta Connection (operated by
Comair (United States)) with
Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia and
Swearingen Metroliner aircraft,
Gulfstream International with the
Beechcraft 99 and
USAir Express with the
Beechcraft 1900. The airport experienced a rebound in traffic during the mid-1990s, with 173,000 passengers and seven airlines in 1995.; however, 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 on behalf of
US Airways from Naples to Tampa; the airline had been operating up to five nonstop
Beechcraft 1900 turboprop flights a day from Tampa during the late 1990s.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) operated
Delta Connection on behalf of
Delta Air Lines with 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 30-seat turboprop aircraft, again leaving the airport without scheduled service. In 2005, Atlantic Southeast was operating Delta Connection nonstop service from Atlanta with
Canadair CRJ-200 regional jets with three daily flights while
Cape Air was operating four daily nonstop flights from both Key West and Miami with small
Cessna prop aircraft with the latter service from Miami being operated on behalf of
Continental Airlines as
Continental Connection flights.
Yellow Air Taxi previously operated 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 ==