The early years

Prior to World War II, Zandery Airport was a Pan American World Airways (PAA) stop. In 1928, PAA started mail flights from Miami to Paramaribo, the capital of the then Dutch colony Suriname. PAA used Sikorsky S-38 amphibians. Rich and famous Americans, mostly aviators, visited Suriname.

On 24 March 1934, female pilot Guggenheim and male pilot Russel Thaw had to make an emergency landing near the Nieuwe Haven, because they could not find Zanderij airfield. The Lockheed airplane was so severely damaged that it was shipped back to the United States.

On 16 April 1934, female aviator Laura Ingalls landed in a single engine airplane, the Lockheed Air Express at Zanderij in the first solo flight around South America in a landplane.

The KLM tri-motor Fokker F.XVIII, named the Snip (Snipe), made a trans-atlantic crossing from Amsterdam via Paramaribo to Curaçao, carrying mail. The trip of 12,200 km (7,600 mi) (more than 4,200 km (2,600 mi) over water) landed eight days after take-off from Schiphol, on 22 December 1934, at Hato Airport. The captain was J.J. Hongdong, co-pilot/navigator J.J. van Balkom, engineer L.D. Stolk, and wireless operator S. v.d. Molen. The route was from Amsterdam via Marseille, Alicante, Casablanca, Cabo Verde, Paramaribo and Caracas. The Snip landed at Zanderij Field on 20 December 1934, after a first trans-Atlantic crossing of 3,600 km (2,200 mi), dubbed "the Christmas Mail-flight", directly from Porto Praia. However, the flight did not inaugurate a regular KLM trans-Atlantic service.

In January 1937 William Henry Vanderbilt III landed in a baby Clipper Sikorsky S-38 at Zanderij with wife and friends The Flying Hutchinsons.

On 3 June 1937, aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart landed at Zanderij with a Lockheed Model 10 Electra at local time 2:38 P.M. The navigator was a retired PAA aviator Fred Noonan. This was on their second attempt of a "world flight" en route from Miami to Natal and then transatlantic to Dakar, Senegal. They stayed overnight at the Palace Hotel in Paramaribo and left Zanderij again on Friday 4 June 1937 for Fortaleza, Brazil. One month later they disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.

On 16 March 1938, pilots Whitney and Harmon made an emergency landing with their Beechcraft on an airstrip near the Eerste Rijweg. They could not find Zanderij Airfield.

In 1938, the KLM started a weekly service between Paramaribo and Willemstad (Curaçao) with a twin engined Lockheed L-14 Super Electra able to carry 12 passengers and named MEEUW (PJ-AIM). Mail arrived much faster at Curaçao than with PAA, but the service was not a commercial success.

On 11 May 1939, The Flying Hutchinsons arrived at Zanderij in a twin engine Lockheed Electra, on their "family round-the-world global nations flight", which was broadcast on a radio series sponsored by Pepsi Cola.

Expansion during World War II by the US Armed Forces

After the fall of the Netherlands to German forces in 1940, the United States obtained military basing rights to the airport from the Netherlands government-in-exile in London. Suriname was then the world's principal source of bauxite (for aluminium production) and needed protection. The first American armed forces arrived at the airport on 30 November 1941, and expanded the facilities to be a transport base for sending Lend-Lease supplies to England via air routes across the South Atlantic Ocean. The runways were constructed by the US Corps of Engineers. They also built the road from Onverwacht to Zanderij which was completed in 1942.

With the United States' entry into the war in December 1941, the importance of Zandery Field increased drastically, becoming a major transport base on the South Atlantic route of Air Transport Command ferrying supplies and personnel to Freetown Airport, Sierra Leone, and onwards to the European and African theaters of the war. In addition, antisubmarine patrols were flown from the airfield over the southern Caribbean and South Atlantic coastlines.

Major United States Army Air Force (USAAF) units assigned to the airfield were:

35th Bombardment Squadron (25th Bombardment Group) 1 November 1941 – 7 October 1943 (B-25 Mitchell)

Detachment operated from: Atkinson Field, British Guiana, 1 November 1942 – 7 October 1943

Detachment operated from: Piarco Airport, Trinidad, 27 August – 12 October 1943

99th Bombardment Squadron (9th Bombardment Group), 3 December 1941 – 31 October 1942 (B-18 Bolo)

22nd Fighter Squadron (36th Fighter Group), 16 September 1942 – 16 February 1943 (P-39 Airacobras, later P-47 Thunderbolts)

23d Antisubmarine Squadron (Trinidad Detachment, Antilles Air Command), 15 August – December 1943 (A-29 Hudson)

Just before the Pearl Harbor attack, on 3 December, the 99th Squadron was ordered to distant Zandery Field, Dutch Guiana (by way of Piarco Field, Trinidad, under an agreement with the Dutch government-in-exile, by which the United States occupied the colony to protect bauxite mines. However, to the disappointment of the crews, the squadron had to leave its B-17 behind. It was, however, reinforced with additional B-18A Bolos, bringing squadron strength up to six aircraft.