The Northeast Florida Regional Airport, serving St. Augustine and St. Johns County, will soon be going back to it former name, the St. Augustine Airport.
The acting manager says the new name of Northeast Florida Regional Airport has created confusion with Jacksonville International Airport and presented a mouthful for air traffic controllers directing traffic into and out of the facility.
On December 27, 1933, the St. Augustine City Commission voted to buy 276 acres (1.12 km2) in Araquay Park, north of the city, for $8,000 for conversion to a public airport. U.S. Government grants through the decade allowed improvements to the airfield, and after the outbreak of World War II in 1939 vast new sums were provided for possible military use.
After the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, civil aviation at the airfield was cancelled and the U.S. Navy took over the airport, renaming it Naval Auxiliary Air Station St. Augustine.