About EYW Airport and Key West, FL

Key West International Airport (EYW),  covers 334 acres (135 ha) at an elevation of 3 feet (1 m). Their one runway is 5,076 by 100 feet (1,547 x 30 m) asphalt.

In 2019 EYW saw over 900,000 passengers.

Southern Airways flies to West Palm Beach from EYW.

In 1928, Pan American Airways began scheduled flights from Key West. The main runway at Meacham Field was pressed into U.S. Army use after the Pearl Harbor attack, and into U.S. Navy use later in World War II as an alternative to the Trumbo Point seaplane base and the main Naval Air Station for fixed-wing and lighter-than-air (i.e., blimp) aircraft on Boca Chica Key.

Key West (Spanish: Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it constitutes the City of Key West.

The Island of Key West itself is 4 miles long and a mile wide.

Key West is a port of call for many passenger cruise ships. The Key West International Airport provides airline service. Naval Air Station Key West is an important year-round training site for naval aviation due to the tropical weather, which is also the reason Key West was chosen as the site of President Harry S. Truman’s Winter White House.

Pan American Airlines was founded in Key West, originally to fly visitors to Havana, in 1926.

In 1982, the city of Key West briefly asserted independence as the Conch Republic as a protest over a United States Border Patrol blockade. This blockade was set up on US 1, where the northern end of the Overseas Highway meets the mainland at Florida City, in response to the Mariel Boatlift. A traffic jam of 17 miles (27 km) ensued while the Border Patrol stopped every car leaving the Keys, supposedly searching for illegal immigrants attempting to enter the mainland United States. This paralyzed the Florida Keys, which rely heavily on the tourism industry. Flags, T-shirts, and other merchandise representing the Conch Republic are still popular souvenirs for visitors to Key West, and the Conch Republic Independence Celebration– including parades and parties –is celebrated annually, on April 23.