Old Flamingo Airport

The airport was closed because it was replaced by a larger, more modern facility. The original airstrip was rudimentary and too small to handle the larger military aircraft required during World War II. U.S. forces stationed on Bonaire constructed a new, superior airport (the current Flamingo International Airport, TNCB) which opened in 1945, making the original airstrip obsolete.

The site of the original 1936 airstrip has been completely redeveloped over the decades and is no longer recognizable as an airfield. The area is now occupied by residential neighborhoods and commercial development. There are no visible remnants of the runway or any airport structures. It is important to note that the ICAO code (BQ-0001) is a non-standard identifier used in some unofficial databases, and the coordinates provided in the query (12.18637, -68.26484) point to the location of the current, active Flamingo International Airport (TNCB / BON), not the historical closed site.

This was the very first airport on the island of Bonaire, heralding the start of aviation for the island. It officially opened in 1936, with the first flight, a KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) Oriol aircraft, landing in May of that year. The airport was a simple landing strip located near the area of Subi Blanku and Tra'i Montaña. It was a critical piece of infrastructure that ended the island's relative isolation, primarily handling small propeller aircraft for regional flights operated by KLM's West Indies Division, connecting Bonaire to Curaçao and the wider world.

There are zero prospects for reopening this airport. The original site no longer exists, having been absorbed into the urban development of Kralendijk. The island of Bonaire is well-served by the modern Flamingo International Airport (TNCB), which has been continuously upgraded to meet international standards and handle modern jet aircraft.