1929–1941 In 1929, Bud Holman, whose sons and grandsons now operate Sun Aviation, was one of the group that built the airport in Vero Beach. The Vero Beach Regional Airport was dedicated in 1930 and in 1932
Eastern Air Lines began refueling there. making Vero Beach the smallest little airport in Florida to have airmail service,
Postwar In 1948
Major League Baseball arrived as Bud Holman, a local businessman, invited the
Brooklyn Dodgers to take over barracks facilities from the closed naval air station for winter and spring training. The Dodgers liked the area so much that
Dodgertown was born, a tract next to the airport, as their training grounds. The Dodgers continued to use the facility even after becoming the
Los Angeles Dodgers until they moved to a new facility in
Glendale, Arizona in 2008. In 1957
Piper Aircraft selected Vero Beach for a research and development center at the former naval air station; in 1961 Piper moved administrative and manufacturing operations here. By 1967 Piper had expanded its facility to and its workforce to over 2,000. Manufacturing of Piper Aircraft at the Vero Beach facility ceased in the mid-1980s when increasing product liability insurance premiums made continued operation financially impossible. Upon limitation of liability by new legislation by
United States Congress in the early 1990s, manufacturing began again in 1995. Paris Air Inc. Flight Academy, a flight training organization based at Vero Beach Regional Airport, was founded in 1988 by Paris G. Christodoulides. The academy provides FAA Part 141 and Part 61 pilot training programs and serves both domestic and international students. Over time, it has grown into one of the established flight training providers at the airport, contributing to the airport’s role as a center for pilot training activity. Skyborne Airline Academy, a flight training school, is also based at Vero Beach Regional Airport. The British company purchased and rebranded the FlightSafety Academy in 2021 in order to expand its flight training to the United States. Today, Vero Beach Regional Airport is a tower-controlled facility with an FAR Part 139 operating certificate. However, commercial service ended for nearly two decades when
American Eagle flew its last flight to Miami in February 1996.
Elite Airways began operating flights from the airport in 2015 but stopped indefinitely in 2022, when the airline ceased operations.
2020–present Following Elite's shutdown, scheduled commercial service at the airport resumed in February 2023 when
Breeze Airways launched services to
Hartford, expanding to other destinations as the year progressed. The airline would later establish a base of operations at the airport the following year. Vero Beach is one of the few commercial airports in the United States to offer free long-term parking for up to 21 days. In March 2025, the airport announced it would open a
U.S. Customs and Border Protection office, making it an International Airport, which opened in July 2025. In Fall 2025, Vero Beach Regional Airport officials announced the introduction of two new airlines to the airport:
American Airlines and
JetBlue. Daily JetBlue flights to
Boston and
New York began on December 11, 2025 and American Airlines flights to
Charlotte began in February 2026. ==Airlines and destinations==