Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Naples Airport (KAPF) is a busy general-aviation field on Florida's Gulf coast, two nautical miles northeast of downtown Naples. Once a wartime training base, it is now a hub for flight schools, charter operators and corporate aviation, and remains sensitive to noise from its surrounding residential neighbourhoods.
Naples Airport, formerly Naples Municipal Airport, is a public-use aerodrome owned and operated by the Naples Airport Authority. It sits close to the Gulf of Mexico and downtown Naples in Collier County, Florida, and today serves almost exclusively general aviation, with flight training, air charter, corporate and sightseeing operators based on the field alongside fire/rescue, mosquito control and Collier County Sheriff's Aviation Unit services. For a simulator pilot it offers a compact three-runway layout, a control tower, and the flavour of a busy Florida coastal GA field with a strong business-aviation character.
The airport lies about two nautical miles northeast of the Naples central business district on Florida's southwest Gulf coast. It falls under the Fort Myers approach/departure service, reachable on 119.75 MHz, and is within range of Southwest Florida International Airport at Fort Myers, which supplanted Naples as the region's main commercial gateway from the 1980s onward.
Naples has two hard-surfaced, lit runway pairs. Runway 05/23 is 5,801 feet long. Runway 14/32 is 4,871 feet long measured from the 14 threshold and 4,543 feet from the 32 threshold. There is no ILS at the field. Field elevation is 3 feet above mean sea level.
The common traffic advisory/tower frequency is 128.5 MHz, with ATIS on 134.225 MHz. Ground control works on 121.6 MHz and clearance delivery on 118 MHz. Fort Myers approach/departure can be reached on 119.75 MHz, and a Miami radio outlet is available on 123.6 MHz.
Naples is a noise-sensitive airport bordered by residential development, and airport users have historically operated a voluntary curfew to limit disturbance to the local community; pilots should expect to fly considerately around circuit and pattern work accordingly.
The airfield began life in 1942 as Naples Army Air Field, built by the United States Army Air Forces and assigned to the Southeast Training Center, later the Eastern Flying Training Command. Embry-Riddle provided basic flight training for cadets using Fairchild PT-19 aircraft, and the field also served as a sub-base to Buckingham Army Air Field for flexible gunnery training under the 75th Flying Training Wing. It was inactivated as a military airfield in November 1945 and passed to the War Assets Administration, with the Naples Airdrome returned to the city and Collier County in 1947. Pilot and Naples resident John Zate managed the airport in its early civilian years. Provincetown-Boston Airlines began scheduled service to Miami in the 1950s and managed the field for a period before a municipal airport authority was formed in 1969, the same year a Tropical Storm Jenny caused over ten thousand dollars of damage to the airport. Through the late 1970s and into the 1980s and 1990s the airport saw scheduled service from carriers including Mackey International, Piedmont, American Eagle, Continental Express, Delta Connection, Gulfstream International and US Airways Express, with passenger numbers peaking above 195,000 in 1980 before falling away after the opening of Southwest Florida International Airport at Fort Myers. Scheduled airline service came and went in cycles over the following decades. A Douglas DC-3 operated by the Collier Mosquito Control District crashed at East Naples on 10 September 1985 while on approach following an engine failure during agricultural duties, and on 20 June 2005 a departing Cessna 182 Skylane encountered severe weather over the Gulf of Mexico. The airport authority renamed the facility from Naples Municipal Airport to Naples Airport in December 2018.
Naples Airport now handles more than 100,000 general-aviation takeoffs and landings a year and is home to flight schools, air charter operators, sightseeing tour companies and corporate aviation businesses, alongside car rental agencies and community services including fire/rescue, mosquito control and the Collier County Sheriff's Aviation Unit. As of 2025 JSX offers the only scheduled passenger service from the field. The airport provides US Customs clearance for international general-aviation arrivals. It has been recognised within the industry, including as the Florida Department of Transportation's 2012 General Aviation Airport of the Year, and continues to balance its role as a significant contributor to the local economy with its noise-sensitive location amid nearby residential communities.
