Naples Municipal Airport
The facility was established in 1942 as Naples Army Airfield by the United States Army Air Forces. It was initially assigned to the Southeast Training Center (later Eastern Flying Training Command). Provided basic (level 1) flight training to flight cadets by Embry-Riddle Co; Fairchild PT-19s were the primary trainer used. Along with the flight training, was a sub-base to Buckingham Army Airfield for flexible gunnery training, which the 75th Flying Training Wing supervised. Inactivated on November 1, 1945, being turned over to the War Assets Administration for conveyance to civil control as a public airport.
Naples Municipal Airport
The Naples Airdrome was returned to the city of Naples and Collier County in 1947, after the military deemed it no longer necessary. Provincetown-Boston Airlines began scheduled service to Miami International Airport in the 1950s, and managed the airport for several years until a municipal airport authority was created in 1969. The airport also historically had scheduled service to Orlando, Tampa and Key West. Traffic at the airport peaked in 1980, when more than 195,000 passengers used the airport, but fell in the early 1980s due to the opening of the much larger Southwest Florida International Airport in nearby Fort Myers. The airport code APF derives from "alternate Page Field" - which is a reference to Page Field in Fort Myers.