World War II In 1941, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built an airfield on the current airport property as a combat pilot training base for the
U.S. Army Air Forces' (USAAF)
Third Air Force, naming the facility
Punta Gorda Army Airfield. By 1944, the base reached its peak in housing 1,000 personnel, including two squadrons of student pilots.
Florida Airlines operated flights from PGD to
Tampa International Airport and Fort Myers (
Page Field) from 1970 to 1976. Pompano Airways began flights from PGD to
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 1981 but the service was discontinued after less than a year.
Provincetown-Boston Airlines (PBA) operated service between PGD and
Tampa International Airport in the early 1980s on
Douglas DC-3 and
Cessna 402 aircraft. PBA discontinued service to PGD in 1985, which was the last commercial service at PGD for the next two decades. Passenger service resumed at PGD in 2007.
Skybus Airlines and
DayJet began flights at the airport. A new passenger terminal, named the Bailey Terminal, opened in 2007 replacing a structure that had been destroyed by
Hurricane Charley. Airline service resumed on November 22, 2008, when low-cost carrier
Direct Air began twice weekly service to 10 cities in the eastern U.S. On December 2, 2008, low-cost airline
Allegiant Air also announced it would open a new focus city at PGD and began
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 flights to
Greenville, South Carolina and
Knoxville, Tennessee on March 5, 2009. A third airline,
Vision Airlines also commenced weekly flights to
Northwest Florida Regional Airport, collocated with
Eglin Air Force Base (VPS) in Fort Walton Beach, on March 25, 2011. Vision then offered through ticketing for flights from Punta Gorda to Atlanta, Savannah, and Asheville via connections at the airline's Destin/Fort Walton Beach hub. Vision no longer has a hub at Destin/Fort Walton Beach. The airport built a control tower in 2012 to accommodate additional commercial passenger service. The
National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015
categorized it as a
primary commercial service airport since it has over 10,000 passenger boardings (enplanements) per year.
Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 147,698 enplanements in
calendar year 2011, an increase from 87,041 in 2010. Vision Airlines and Direct Air ended all service to PGD in 2012. Shortly after the collapse of Direct Air, Allegiant grew their PGD presence from three to seven cities and started basing aircraft full-time at the airport. Allegiant continues to grow at PGD; by the end of 2015, Allegiant served 29 destinations from PGD.
Frontier Airlines briefly served PGD in late 2016 to mid 2017 offering flights to Philadelphia, Chicago-O'Hare, and Trenton which had been relocated from nearby
Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers. After the tourist season of that year, Frontier discontinued service to PGD and shifted the flights back to Fort Myers.
Florida International Air Show The airport has been home to the Florida International Air Show since 1981. The Florida International Air Show is a
501(c)(4) nonprofit organization operated wholly by several hundred volunteers that include airport staff. Each year, the Florida International Air Show donates proceeds to various local charities that provide their volunteers for the setup, operations, and breakdown of the event. Through November 2016, the Florida International Air Show has donated $2.9 million to these local working charities throughout its history. ==Facilities==