Destin–Fort Walton Beach Airport (IATA: VPS, ICAO: KVPS, FAA LID: VPS) is an airport located within Eglin Air Force Base, adjacent to the city of Valparaiso and near the cities of Destin and Fort Walton Beach, in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States.

Southern would later upgrade their service into the airport with 40-passenger Martin 404 propliners before initiating the first scheduled passenger jet flights at VPS.

1967: Southern Airways introduced Douglas DC-9-10 jetliner service into VPS thus becoming the first airline to operate jets into the airport.

1968: According to the September 3, 1968, Southern Airways system timetable, the airline was operating daily nonstop DC-9-10 jet service to Atlanta and New Orleans with direct, no change of plane DC-9 jet flights twice a day to New York City LaGuardia Airport and Washington D.C. Dulles Airport via intermediate stops in Dothan, AL and Columbus, GA.[6] February 1975: The new James E. Plew Terminal Building of the Okaloosa Air Terminal, on State Road 85, opened in mid-February 1975, with dedication on 22 February.

Federal grants totaled $472,000, state $80,000, Okaloosa County bond sale $1.1 million, and Southern Airways $190,000.

First year enplaned passengers totaled 97,000 with Southern Airways as the sole airline serving VPS with 12 departing flights daily.

[10] As the decade progressed, Delta Air Lines and Eastern Air Lines both added nonstop service between the airport and Atlanta via their respective regional airline code sharing partners, Delta Connection and Eastern Metro Express, both of which operated turboprop aircraft into VPS.

[10] The Delta Connection service was flown by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) operating de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 and Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops.

March 2016 : GLO Airlines began less than daily, seasonal service from VPS to Little Rock (LIT) and New Orleans (MSY) using 30-seat Saab 340B turboprop aircraft.

May/June 2016: Allegiant Air began scheduled service to VPS from Cincinnati (CVG), Ft Lauderdale (FLL), Oklahoma City (OKC), Knoxville (TYS), Memphis (MEM) and St Louis/Belleville (BLV) flying Airbus A319, A320, and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 mainline jet aircraft.

September 2016: Contour Airlines began flying less than daily, seasonal service from Bowling Green, KY (BWG) to VPS using 30-seat British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 41 turboprop aircraft.

[14] January 2017: Allegiant Air announced a major expansion with a new base of operations to be located on the airport with a total of eighteen (18) domestic destinations to be served nonstop on seasonal basis with mainline jet aircraft by June 2017 with most of the planned new service to begin in May 2017.

[15] May 2019: Silver Airways began daily service to Orlando, FL (MCO) from VPS using a 34-seat Saab 340 turboprop aircraft.

May 6, 2021: Southwest Airlines began service to VPS with flights to Dallas-Love (DAL), Nashville (BNA), Baltimore/Washington (BWI) and Chicago/Midway (MDW).

These were designed with the Transportation Security Administration's "300-foot rule" in mind, and satisfy the 300-foot (91 m) distance between parked vehicles and the terminal building.