Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport

Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport is the principal international airport of Suriname, named after the country's first prime minister Johan Adolf Pengel (1916–1970) and serving as the sole international gateway to the Dutch-speaking South American republic. Located at Zanderij, roughly 28 mi (45 km) south of the capital Paramaribo at 59 ft (18 m) elevation in the Amazon-rainforest interior, the airport was originally built during World War II as a United States Army Air Forces ferry stop supporting the South Atlantic air bridge to West Africa. It retains the ICAO identifier SMJP and is operated by Luchthaven Beheer (Airport Management) Suriname. The airport handles 13 routes across 9 destinations through 8 airlines. Surinam Airways (SLM), the national flag carrier, is the dominant operator and serves the flagship Amsterdam route — Suriname's most important international link, reflecting the country's former status as a constituent part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (independent 1975) and the large Surinamese diaspora in the Netherlands. Additional services include KLM (via Amsterdam), Caribbean Airlines (Port of Spain), Copa (Panama City), GOL (Belém), Insel Air, and regional operators connecting Aruba, Curaçao, and neighboring Guyana. The Amsterdam long-haul service is operated with widebody aircraft and functions as the primary European feed for Suriname and the adjacent Guianas. The single asphalt runway 11/29 measures 11,417 ft (3,480 m), a WWII-legacy specification that accommodates all commercial widebody aircraft including the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 used on the Amsterdam service. The terminal has been progressively expanded and modernized since the 1990s. Suriname drives on the left-hand side of the road — a legacy of the country's shared transport history with British-influenced neighbors rather than the Netherlands — which affects rental-car operations for visitors arriving from continental Europe.