Palm Beach International Airport officially became Trump airport on Thursday, taking the name President Donald J. Trump International Airport. The first plane arrived shortly after 5 a.m., and the three-letter code is scheduled to change from PBI to DJT on Aug. 18.
Airport officials said the change will not happen all at once. They said signs for Palm Beach International Airport have been removed while new signage goes up, and that the classic look and new brand elements will coexist over the next several weeks.
West Palm Beach airport rollout
The airport’s new name applies in South Florida at the same airport the Trump family regularly uses when visiting Mar-a-Lago in nearby Palm Beach. Earlier this year, a stretch of road from the airport to the estate was renamed Donald J. Trump Boulevard, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation earlier this year that made the airport name change possible.
Trump Force One, a Boeing 757 owned by The Trump Organization, was the first plane to arrive under the new name shortly after 5 a.m. Eric Trump was among the passengers and posted on X that there is no person who has done more for Florida and the country, and no one more deserving of the honor.
Keegan Collett at PBI
Not everyone at the airport saw the change the same way. Keegan Collett, who was leaving Thursday morning for Cincinnati, said, “At the end of the day, it's just the name of an airport.” He added, “There's bigger things. I feel like it's just more of a distraction. Why even worry about it?”
Collett also said he does not think Trump deserves to have an airport named after him. That view sits alongside the praise from Eric Trump, who said he will forever be proud to see the initials “DJT” on his boarding pass.
PBI to DJT on Aug. 18
The code change gives travelers a separate deadline to track: PBI will remain in use until Aug. 18, when DJT is scheduled to replace it. The renaming is expected to cost as much as $5.5 million for new signs, branding and other updates, a figure that points to a rollout measured in fixtures, labels and systems rather than a single switch.
For passengers, the practical change is already visible in the terminal and will become more complete over the next several weeks. The name on the building has changed, the code will follow later, and the airport’s public identity is being rewritten in stages.
