PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – May marked 15 years since Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport replaced Panama City Bay-County International Airport (ECP).
Ever since then, the region along with the airport has expanded, and on Saturday, the first non-stop flight from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport was launched.
It’s a major travel hub for locals departing from this area, as well as being an arrival point for others,” stated Will Cramer, who serves as the Vice Chair of Airport Authority. “Having access to non-stop flights makes it convenient both when traveling out and returning back.
The airport celebrated with a water cannon salute, and goody bags for all the direct flight passengers.
Passengers say that the new, nearly three-hour flight to New York makes it easier for them to travel back to where they are originally from.
” We’ve been waiting for this for a long time, and we want to show our daughter where we’re from, as well as where she’s from, and she can have that perspective like we do of the world at large,” said Shawna Hogan, a Walton County resident aboard the inaugural flight. ” we’re just really excited, this is amazing.”
Her daughter, Sumner Hogan, along with her friend, Frankie Lauderdale, concur.
They say they are excited about shopping trips in the Big Apple.
Nonstop flights will operate each weekend throughout this summer, with extra departures scheduled for the Fourth of July.
Beginning in November, daily non-stop flights from ECP to LGA will operate every day.
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