Orbx has recently released their rendition of Palm Beach International Airport (KPBI) for X-Plane 11 and 12, the primary airport of Palm Beach County, serving Wellington, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, and Palm Beach Gardens. It’s the third busiest airport in the Miami Metropolitan Area with a yearly average of 7 million passengers.

Its origins date back to 1936 when it opened as Morrison Field, named after Grace Morrison, a key planner of the airfield. The first flight to ever depart from it was an Eastern Air Lines DC-2 heading to New York that same year. Not soon after, in 1937, it was expanded beyond an airstrip, with the construction of hangars, and its first terminal: the Eastern Air Lines Terminal. It took a major role during WW2 as a training base (and staging, later on) for the Allied invasion of France, with an en masse departure towards the United Kingdom to join the D-Day invasion of Normandy. It was later returned to Palm Beach County, with its current name being officially adopted in 1948, although not for long, as it was once again transformed into an Air Force Base in 1951, training airmen for the Korean War.

In 1962, the Air Force decided to close the AFB, and it once again became Palm Beach International Airport. Delta Air Lines began their scheduled flights a couple of years prior, followed by Capital Airlines. After local voters rejected a proposal to relocate the airport in detriment of an expansion, PBI got an eight-gate main terminal on the northeastern side of the airport in 1966, with Delta eventually moving into its own terminal in 1974, with six-gates and featuring the airport’s first jetways. Fourteen years later, the airport got another terminal, with 25 gates. It was named after David McCampbell, a WW2 ace. It was considered to be among the finest in the United States by the readers of the Conde Nast Traveller Magazine. Further expansion work followed in 2006, with the construction of a seven-story parking garage and three gates in concourse c. 

As of 2018, the airport has 32 gates, with Concourse A housing Bahamasair and Silver Airways, Concourse B housing Air Canada, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, and United Airlines, and Concourse C hosting Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, and Spirit Airlines. JetBlue is responsible for 25.37% of the market share, with 1,362,000 passengers, followed by Delta and American, with 21.65% and 21.09%, respectively.

The scenery features detailed 3D models of the airport, terminal, and surrounding buildings, with high-quality PBR textures, realistic night lighting, custom ground service equipment, custom animated SAM jetways, animated radar systems, and an updated layout matching 2022 standards, along with integration with TrueEarth Florida (X-Plane 11 only).

It’s available on OrbxDirect for roughly $20.41, requiring at least 3.27 GB of free disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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