ECP Nominated for USA Today 10BEST Award for Second Straight Year

ECP NOM­I­NAT­ED FOR USA TODAY 10BEST AWARDS FOR SEC­OND STRAIGHT YEAR
North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port returns to the Best Resort Air­port bal­lot after a top-five fin­ish in 2025

PANA­MA CITY, Fla. (Sep­tem­ber 7, 2026) - For the sec­ond year in a row, USA TODAY has nom­i­nat­ed North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) for a 10Best Read­ers' Choice Award in the Best Resort Air­port cat­e­go­ry. Pub­lic vot­ing opens Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 7, 2026, at noon EDT, and you can vote for ECP using this link.

ECP placed fourth nation­al­ly in the cat­e­go­ry last year. This year's nom­i­na­tion comes as the Air­port marks the busiest year in its his­to­ry and breaks ground on its largest expan­sion since opening.

The USA TODAY 10Best Read­ers' Choice Awards rec­og­nize the best of the best across trav­el and lifestyle cat­e­gories. Nom­i­nees are select­ed by a pan­el of experts and reviewed by USA TODAY 10Best edi­tors, and the pub­lic votes for the winners.

The Best Resort Air­port nom­i­na­tion speaks to ECP's loca­tion - less than 30 min­utes from white sand beach­es and warm Gulf waters - and to how eas­i­ly trav­el­ers move from the Ter­mi­nal to Pana­ma City, Pana­ma City Beach, South Wal­ton, Des­tin, Sea­side and Fort Wal­ton Beach. With dai­ly non­stop ser­vice from Amer­i­can Air­lines, Delta Air Lines, South­west Air­lines and Unit­ed Air­lines, vaca­tions begin the moment pas­sen­gers step off the aircraft.

"Being nom­i­nat­ed two years run­ning is a reflec­tion of what this region has built togeth­er," said Will Cramer, Chair of the North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port Board of Direc­tors. ​"A vote for ECP is a vote for North­west Flori­da, and we hope our neigh­bors and our vis­i­tors will cast one every day."

ECP wel­comed 1,937,224 pas­sen­gers in 2025, an all-time record and a 3.1 per­cent increase over the pre­vi­ous year. In Jan­u­ary, the Air­port broke ground on an 80,000-square-foot North Ter­mi­nal expan­sion that will add three gates, four bag­gage claim carousels, addi­tion­al con­ces­sions and seat­ing, and a relo­cat­ed and expand­ed TSA check­point. In May, ECP was award­ed an $8 mil­lion fed­er­al Air­port Ter­mi­nal Pro­gram grant to sup­port the project.

The Air­port has also invest­ed in the details that make a beach trip feel like a beach trip before pas­sen­gers ever reach the sand. The new ECP Fly­Brary is a free take-a-book, leave-a-book library inside the Ter­mi­nal launched in part­ner­ship with the North­west Region­al Library Sys­tem. The Wheels Up Sum­mer Music Series brings live local music to depart­ing trav­el­ers, and ECP spon­sors the 30A Song­writ­ers Festival.

The pub­lic is encour­aged to vote dai­ly for ECP until vot­ing clos­es Mon­day, Octo­ber 5, at noon EDT. Win­ners will be announced on the USA TODAY 10Best website.

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About North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) is locat­ed less than 30 min­utes from Pana­ma City Beach, Pana­ma City and the beach­es of South Wal­ton. Today, with ser­vice from Amer­i­can Air­lines, Delta Air Lines, South­west Air­lines, and Unit­ed Air­lines, ECP pro­vides dai­ly, non­stop flights to Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS) Bal­ti­more (BWI), Boston (BOS), Char­lotte (CLT), Chica­go (MDW/ORD), Colum­bus (CMH), Dal­las (DAL/DFW), Den­ver (DEN), Hous­ton (HOU/IAH), Kansas City (MCI), Nashville (BNA), New York City (LGA), St. Louis (STL), Wash­ing­ton DC (DCA), and one-stop to world­wide des­ti­na­tions. The first inter­na­tion­al air­port to be built in more than a decade, ECP pro­vides North­west Flori­da com­mu­ni­ties with first-class facil­i­ties and was strate­gi­cal­ly dev­el­oped for major eco­nom­ic dev­el­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. ECP is the gate­way to vis­i­tors seek­ing North­west Florida's famous beaches.