Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) was officially dedicated and opened on December 19, 1936, as Morrison Field, named for Grace Morrison, a pioneering local aviator and president of the Palm Beach County Airport Association who died in a car crash just months before the dedication. The inaugural commercial departure was an Eastern Air Lines DC-2 bound for New York. At dedication, the field consisted of nothing more than a strip and a small administration building.

Within 4 years, the military changed everything. In November 1940, the U.S. Army Air Corps began converting Morrison Field for wartime use, officially activating it in 1941. It became the headquarters for the Caribbean Wing of the Air Transport Command and a major aerial port of embarkation for aircraft departing via the South Atlantic route. More than 45,000 airmen passed through during World War II, many bound for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The airport returned briefly to military service during the Korean War, training nearly 23,000 airmen between 1951 and 1953. Palm Beach County regained full operational control in 1959.

The county renamed the facility Palm Beach International Airport on August 11, 1948. The current terminal, the David McCampbell Terminal, named for a Palm Beach County resident and Medal of Honor-winning World War II naval flying ace, opened in 1988. The airport operates a single terminal with 3 concourses and 3 runways, the longest stretching 10,001 feet. It ranks third among Miami metropolitan area airports by passenger volume, handling over 8.6 million passengers in 2025 across service from more than a dozen airlines including American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, United, Air Canada, and Bahamasair. Less than 4 miles from downtown West Palm Beach, PBI is the primary gateway for Palm Beach County and the surrounding Gold Coast communities.