Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport (IATA: SRQ, ICAO: KSRQ, FAA LID: SRQ)[4] is a public use international airport located within three jurisdictions: Sarasota County, the city limits of Sarasota, and Manatee County, all in the U.S. state of Florida.

After the war, most civilian operations at Lowe Field went to the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport, with the exception of student pilots, mosquito control programs, and crop dusters.

Construction on the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport started in 1939 and opened the following year with CCC and WPA assistance at a cost of $1 million.

The airport initially received the designation "SSO", a short-lived code subject to misinterpretation as the international distress signal, SOS.

[14] On July 25, 1945, a Douglas TC-47B that left out of Sarasota to Lake Charles on a navigation training session crashed after going through a thunderstorm north of Tampa.

Construction started on a terminal building designed by Paul Rudolph and locally known architect, John Cromwell, on August 18, 1958, and opening on May 2 the next year.

Executive established Sarasota as a maintenance base and later their headquarters from 1968 to 1971 and flew flights to Tampa and Fort Myers.

In 1970, voters in Manatee and Sarasota counties decided that the authority should be elected instead of appointed, and state legislation was passed affirming this in 1972.

On February 23, 1976, Gerald R. Ford and his family flew into the airport on Air Force One while visiting Sarasota on a trip across Florida.

[28] Next month, on March 2, Jimmy Carter held a press conference at the airport before speaking to the public at adjacent New College.

[29] Likely that same day, Henry "Scoop" Jackson another presidential candidate running on the Democratic ticket, hosted a campaign rally at the airport.

[33] The proposal suggested making the facility into a general aviation airport and constructing a replacement east of future Interstate 75 within Lakewood Ranch.

[34][35] Opposition to the airport also came from a local environmentalist, Gloria Rains, who was the head and founder of ManaSota-88, an environmental group.

[38] When a referendum was held in 1986 on the matter (as required under state law if they wanted to move the airport) it was struck down.

Work began in 1987 to build a new airport terminal along with areas for parking, ramp space and landscaping.

[27] During the first day the new airport terminal was in operation, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that passengers and airline staff liked it.

George W. Bush was at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota when Andrew Card first informed him of the September 11, 2001 attacks, at 9:05 AM.

[43] Air Force One taxied out at 9:54 AM and took off from runway 14 at 9:55 AM, employing the emergency capability of the VC-25 to perform a "rocket-like climb".

In January 2012, AirTran Airways announced that it would drop SRQ on August 12, 2012, as part of its merger with Southwest Airlines.

[50] Elite Airways expanded operations at the airport in 2021 when they started nonstop flights to White Plains, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Portland, Maine on July 2.

[55] Hurricane Milton caused significant damage to the airport, including losing the entire roof of Concourse B.

[3][59] In the year ending October 31, 2023, the airport had 163,082 aircraft operations, an average of 446 per day: 70% general aviation, 20% airline, 9% air taxi, and 1% military.

The D gates were exclusively for ground-boarded commuter flights by airlines including Comair, American Eagle, and Air Sunshine.

Like most law enforcement agencies in Florida and in the United States the Department utilizes Ford Crown Victoria's for patrols.

The following law enforcement and fire services provide mutual aid to the Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority Police and ARFF in the event of a major incident.