Puerto Princesa International Airport

The airport was built by American POWs during the World War II from August 1942 to September 1944. It was used to accommodate large Japanese transport aircraft to complement the grass airstrip south of the present-day location of NCCC Mall Palawan in Lacao Street. The airstrip was constructed by hand by the POW using crushed corals for illuminating night landings. The finished airfield has an area of 7,200 ft by 675 ft with two runways.

On December 14, 1944, occupying Japanese soldiers herded 150 remaining American POWs who had constructed the air strip on Palawan Island (today's Puerto Princesa International Airport and Antonio Bautista Air Base) into air raid trenches, doused them with gasoline, set them afire, then machine-gunned and bayoneted them to death. Among them was Army Capt. Fred Bruni, the Palawan POWs’ senior officer, who was from Janesville, Wisconsin with the 192nd Tank Battalion. Only eleven men escaped the “Palawan Massacre” to be rescued by guerrillas. The story of their ordeal persuaded General Douglas MacArthur that the rumored order for the retreating Japanese to “kill all” prisoners was being implemented, thus his rush to liberate the Philippines.

Imperial Japanese Army Air Force units based there were:

• 2nd Air Division (September 1944 – Early 1945)
• 71st Sentai Squadron (September 1944 – Early 1945)

After liberation of the Palawan in April 1945, a number US Army Air Forces units were stationed at the airport facility. These included:

• Headquarters, XIII Fighter Command (1 March 1945 – November 1945)
• 42d Bombardment Group (March 1945 – January 1946)
• 347th Fighter Group (6 March – December 1945)
• 419th Night Fighter Squadron (6 March 1945 – 10 January 1946)
• 550th Night Fighter Squadron (DET) (9–19 June 1945)

US Army and Navy Engineers of the 1897th Engineer Aviation Battalion and the 84th Naval Construction Battalion immediately rehabilitated the facility and completed as a military airbase on March 18, 1945. The Army and Navy engineers further expand the airfield, strengthening the runway by laying steel Marston Mats and concrete, adding air control facilities and tanks to store oil and aviation fuel.

During the 1950s, President Ramon Magsaysay opened Puerto Princesa to air travel. The first scheduled route, operated by Philippine Airlines (Philippine Air Lines), was from Puerto Princesa to San Jose, Mindoro and vice versa. By late 90s, Puerto Princesa Airport welcomed its first wide-body aircraft service with Airbus A300 dubbed as the "Love Bus" operated by Philippine Airlines.

The old terminal apron is utilized as an additional parking space for general aviation aircraft as well as large aircraft such as the Airbus A320. As of February 28, 2020, the old terminal is under renovation. It is not clear yet if what the renovation is for.

The Philippine Airlines ticketing office was relocated at the main city proper at Getan Square building.

To meet the growing air transportation demands of Puerto Princesa and the Province of Palawan, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) awarded the $82.9-million (P2.616 billion) contract to the Kumho Industrial Co. Ltd. GS Engineering & Construction Joint Venture (Kumho-GS), a South Korean company for the construction of new passenger terminal and cargo terminal building, a new apron with 6 aircraft bays (4 for narrow body and 2 for wide body aircraft as large as the Airbus A330, Airbus A350 and Boeing 787), connecting taxiways, new state-of-the-art air navigation system, and other support facilities in compliance with the international civil aviation standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The project was completed 30 months (approximately two years) from the groundbreaking rites.

The new passenger terminal complex has an upgraded handling capacity of 2 million passengers annually, with an estimated peak passenger flow of 690 passengers per hour. It was officially inaugurated last 3 May 2017 and opened for commercial operations on the next day, May 4, 2017.[4]

The airport consists of a single 2,600 meter (8,530 ft.) x 45 m. (approx. 148 ft.) wide runway running at a direction 09°/27°. The airport shares its single runway with Antonio Bautista Air Base. The runway is equipped with an Instrument Landing System, runway lights, and approach landing lights making the airport capable of nighttime operations as well as low visibility landings.

An em dash (—) is used when data from CAAP is not available.

Year	Domestic (in kg)	International (in kg)	Total (in kg)	Change
2003	5,001,051	0	5,001,051
2004	4,500,599	—	4,500,599	10.01%
2005	4,744,915	0	4,744,915	5.43%
2006	3,912,209	0	3,912,209	17.55%
2007	4,480,615	0	4,480,615	14.53%
2008	4,580,557	0	4,580,557	2.23%
2009	5,439,799	0	5,439,799	18.76%
2010	8,972,631	0	8,972,631	64.94%
2011	9,294,017	0	9,294,017	3.58%
2012	10,938,901	0	10,938,901	17.70%
2013	12,699,299	—	12,699,299	16.09%
2014	15,038,825	—	15,038,825	18.42%
2015	14,278,467	133,614	14,412,081	4.17%
2016	17,136,857	116,870	17,253,727	19.72%
2017	16,173,990	833,190	17,007,180	1.43%
2018	16,955,042	13,029	16,968,071	0.23%