Zandery Air Force Base was turned over to Dutch authorities which returned it to a civil airport. At that time the value of the facility was estimated to be 400,000 Surinamese guilders (Sƒ). Highlights in the years after the second World War In March 1947, Alfredo de Los Rios landed with a 8-F Luscombe plane at Zanderij. He had traveled from the aircraft factory Dallas, Texas in the United States. In June 1959, pilots and missionaries Robert Price and Eugene Friesen arrived at Zandery with a single engine plane during Operation Grasshopper. They performed many medical treatment work in the interior and the Sipaliwini Savanna. On 3 March 1960, American president Dwight D. Eisenhower landed at Zanderij on board Air Force One operated by the U.S. Air Force with a Boeing 707 jetliner. He was accompanied by Secretary of State Christian Herter. They left Suriname the same day. On 14 April 1967, American president Lyndon B. Johnson arrived during a rainstorm at Zanderij on board Air Force One, a Boeing 707 jet. Security was tight around Zanderij Airport. An agreement was signed by the Dutch government and the US to use Zanderij Airport for Military Airlift Command (MAC) usage. The USA paid US$22,000 for 400 landings per year. The crews stayed overnight at the Torarica Hotel. The North American X-15 NASA rocket-powered aircraft was on exhibition at Zanderij Airport for an Airshow held from 8 to 13 November 1963. On 7 April 1972, the first-ever Boeing 747 wide-body jetliner to land in South America, operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, landed at Zanderij Airport, Suriname. With one of the longest runways in the Caribbean region, it served the Antonov An-225 Mriya – the world’s largest cargo plane in 2010. The airport has officially been named after the popular Surinamese politician and former Prime Minister of Suriname Johan Adolf Pengel, but is locally still common named Zanderij. This is parallel to the small village and savannah where it is situated. The airport now has one runway of approximately 3.5 km and reached an average of 500,000 passengers yearly in December 2019. This is achieved mainly on transatlantic flights between Paramaribo and Amsterdam from KLM, TUI fly Netherlands and Surinam Airways and some regional flights to Belem, Georgetown, Cayenne, Panama City and Miami by Trans Guyana Airways with their Beechcraft 1900D, Copa Airlines, Gol and Surinam Airways with their Boeing 737's. And