Closest Airport to Seaside, FL – Where to fly?

Seaside is one of the best towns in Florida to visit. The small town atmosphere along with picturesque architecture will ease everyone’s mind off of work and busy days. However, the lack of a local airport can make planning difficult. This is why we are looking at the closest airport to Seaside, FL today.

Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport is the best choice when flying to Seaside, FL. It’s very close to the town and the traffic from this direction is relaxed. A quick drive in a rental or a quick transfer will get you to Seaside in no time. Unfortunately, it’s a relatively small airport with only a few connections. So let’s explore some other options as well!

We’ll give you a full run-down on the closest airports to Seaside, Florida. With this information, we are sure that you can decide what is the best airport for you.

If you are only here for the raw data then you will be happy to learn that we start out with a table of all the airports you can consider.

Cover Photo Source: M.Fitzsimmons, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

List of airports closest to Seaside

The list contains the nearby airports sorted by distance. The distance is always measured as road distance as we feel like this is the more useful information. Additionally, we’ve highlighted our top choices in bold.

Airport Name	IATA Code	Distance
Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport	ECP	35 miles
Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport	VPS	37 miles
Pensacola International Airport	PNS	75 miles
Tallahassee International Airport	TLH	128 miles

Best: Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport

Panama city’s own airport is the best option for most people when they are looking for flights to Seaside, FL. At only around 35 miles of road distance, it’s the closest airport to Seaside and it’s just an easy drive away.

This airport is also a great choice as the flow of traffic from the Panama direction is usually lighter than it is from the Fort Walton direction. When you choose this airport you can expect little to no traffic jams.

Whether you rent a car or opt for a nice transport the travel time from the airport is usually less than an hour.

Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport is actually a pretty new airport. It has opened its doors to the public in 2010.

This airport handles approximately 1 million passengers each year.

There is just one problem with Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport as the closest airport to Seaside, FL. It’s actually not a huge airport. It only has a limited number of connections to the rest of the nation so you might not be looking at a direct flight.

Current airlines and destinations that fly to this airport (destinations in italic are seasonal):

• American Airlines
  • Charlotte, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington–National
• American Eagle
  • Charlotte, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington–National, Chicago–O’Hare, Philadelphia
• Delta Air Lines
  • Atlanta
• Southwest Airlines
  • Dallas–Love, Houston–Hobby, Nashville, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago–Midway, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis
• United Airlines
  • Chicago-O’Hare
• United Express
  • Houston–Intercontinental, Chicago–O’Hare, Denver, Washington–Dulles

Source

Other airports near Seaside, FL

Now that we’ve looked at the closest option let’s explore some other airports near Seaside, Florida. These can be good alternative options for your travel plans. They are especially handy if your city doesn’t have a direct connection to Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.

Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport

First up is the second best airport when you are flying to Seaside. Not only this is the second best option but it’s the second closest to Seaside, FL.

Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport is considerably bigger than Panama’s airport and it has better connections across the state. Looking towards the west it has a direct flight from as far away as Las Vegas.

The road distance is around 37 miles however the travel time is almost always over 1 hour. In fact, the traffic from this direction can be quite bad. Should you fly at times of heavy traffic the travel time can be up to 2 hours on this short stretch of road.

This airport handles almost two million travelers each year. As you can see it’s the busiest airport on this list. Rental cars and transfers a readily available but it’s better if you book in advance.

Pensacola International Airport

Now we are getting into the airports near Seaside, FL. At 75 miles of distance, the Pensacola Intl’ is quite a drive but it’s not too bad.

If you fly to this airport you can expect a typical travel time of around 1h 40min to 2 hours until you reach Seaside. We recommend taking the I-10. It’s a bit more road distance but you will be going around the Fort Walton Beach area which can get congested.

Pensacola International Airport is a smaller airport and we only recommend it for people who have direct flights here. If your town has a direct connection to Pensacola then it’s worth looking at airline tickets as you might be able to snatch up some nice deals and save a few bucks.

Tallahassee International Airport

Finally on our list is the least preferred option. Tallahassee International Airport is actually around 128 miles from Seaside. This is quite the drive but it’s still in the realm of possibilities.

You can expect the travel time to be around 2 hours and 30 minutes.

This is another relatively relaxed airport that doesn’t see tons of traffic. Regardless, if your town has a direct connection it might be worth looking at the tickets. Who knows, maybe there is a huge discount just the time you are trying to travel.

If you are someone who can put up with a bit more driving then it is possible to save a buck here and there by going for the best deals.

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Closest Airport to Seaside, FL – FAQ