Southwest Airlines to service the new Northwest Florida-Panama City International Airport

Great news for Panama City and the beaches!

Southwest Airlines to serve new Panhandle airport

The Associated Press

PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Southwest Airlines plans to serve the new Northwest Florida-Panama City International Airport when the airport opens in May.

The company announced plans to serve the airport Tuesday afternoon. The Panhandle airport is the first new airport expected to open in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. It is being built in Bay County on 4,000 acres donated by The St. Joe Co., a former timber company started by an heir to the DuPont family fortune in the 1930s.

The company, which owns hundreds of thousands of acres of Panhandle land, lured Southwest Airlines to the new airport under a unique agreement to provide fuel if the airline does not have sufficient passengers in first two years. Executives from the airline, the company and the surrounding community celebrated the news at an announcement ceremony on Tuesday.

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