The airport opened for commercial flights on May 23 , 2010 , and is the first international airport in the United States designed and built since the September 11 attacks . The airport currently has no scheduled international flights , due to the small population in the surrounding areas and the fact that the demand for visitation to Panama City is mostly regional and/or national . The airport authority originally decided to name it Northwest Florida – Panama City International Airport , but airlines and the general public asked the airport authority to use a more regional name . In the late 1990s , the Panama City-Bay County Airport and Industrial District ( Airport Authority ) started looking for ways to increase the air service in the Panama City area . The old airport had been built in 1932 , with scheduled service beginning in 1948 . However , it did not have enough room to expand . Proposed ideas included using the current airport property and extending the current short runways into St. Andrews Bay or into residential neighborhoods , relocation of the airport to a new site , or collocation with Tyndall AFB . With strong opposition to extending the runways into an environmentally sensitive bay or into neighborhoods , the airport authority began to search for relocation sites . The authority received tentative approval to build a new airport in northwestern Bay County in 2001 . In 2005 – 2007 the authority obtained the needed permits
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport