Welcome to the Conch Republic
Located on the island city pair of Key West, Key West International Airport sits at the southernmost part of the Florida Keys archipelago, just 90 miles from the island nation of Cuba. The island is surrounded by stunning, shallow turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida.
The airport itself features a single runway stretching just a hair over five thousand feet in length, putting it on the shorter side of commercial runways. Despite the small size of the airport, it handles a steady and diverse mix of aircraft such as the A319 and E-Jet. No matter the direction of arrival, the airport offers a stunning approach over the shimmering waters surrounding the Keys. From the parking lot to the runway and everywhere in between, the airport carries a distinct island character and atmosphere.
Recent years have seen a significant investment in the airport infrastructure, with a brand new 98 million dollar glass terminal recently opened in 2025 has expanded the airport’s capacity and gate space.
Accuracy & Detail
MK Studios has delivered a 2026 version of the airport, and while major satellite map providers still lag behind in aerial imagery showing the recent construction and changes, the airport aligns well with current charts. The terminal architecture and exterior layout resemble currently available photos of the airport and the new terminal.
The new glass terminal interior is replicated with a high level of detail, mainly focusing on the gate waiting areas and podiums, which help bring the terminal to life. The airport’s two primary restaurants, Chili’s Grill & Bar and Starbucks, are both included and positioned correctly within the terminal, however, both fall short in execution.
The architectural design and branding do not accurately reflect their real-world counterparts. Given their prominent placement and direct visibility from the flight deck through the expansive glass windows, and the fact that the MK Studios team conducted an on-site survey, indicating that accurate reference material was available to their team, these inaccuracies stand out in comparison to the otherwise high level of detail and attention paid to the gate waiting areas, making these shortcomings particularly disappointing.
The new temporary air traffic control tower is accurately placed and reproduced. The new Signature Aviation FBO building features a detailed interior; however, no images are available online at the moment to verify the accuracy of the interior. The exterior appears accurate and detailed, with the exception of the Signature Aviation logo wordmark, which appears to have used Arial font instead of the authentic Signature branding for the wordmark.
The surrounding airport buildings are all present and in detail. The general aviation hangars on the west side of the field do appear to be duplicated with duplicate interiors. The airport features plenty of ground clutter and vehicles scattered across the airport to bring the airport to life. A lot of these vehicles and static aircraft do appear to be base simulator assets, with the fuel trucks standing out the most, seeming to be MSFS 2020 base simulator assets and unfortunately extremely low quality and blurry materials.
MK Studios has also featured the surrounding areas of the airport, which makes all the difference in the immersion of this airport both on the ground and in the air.
Modeling, Material Quality, Night Lighting
MK Studios has delivered a beautifully created airport overall. All architectural elements of the terminal buildings show attention to detail and accuracy, with exception to the points noted above. The Signature FBO is detailed, along with the other airport buildings and hangars. If I’m forced to find something to stand out, the powerlines surrounding the airport seem a little thick for wires, but don’t stand out enough to really pull the immersion in the moment.
MK Studios appears to have used a mix of 1K and 2K materials across the airport, which hold up well when close up to objects and is an industry standard resolution. The texture tiling on the ramp of the general aviation area stands out, but the quality of the texture remains consistent with expectations. Ground markings/lines are sharp and crisp, and while FAA AC 150/5340-1M doesn’t make a specific color code of yellow clear, MK’s choice of yellow seems a bit pale in comparison to what is generally considered the darker federal standard color and what recent YouTube videos of the airport show. Their ground markings are also very dirty and almost dusty-looking compared to the more recent videos of the airport, which appear to be somewhat freshly painted lines.
MK Studios has also done a fantastic job with the night lighting at the airport. The glow at night isn’t too overwhelming or too dim. The taxiway lights and directional signs give off a nice glow and the signs are readable at night. The jetways are lit and provide additional ambiance to the ramp area.
Performance
On my test system, the airport performed well with smooth frames. This was tested using the base Cessna C172 and the Fenix Simulation A319. Frames were smooth across all phases of flight, both on departure and arrival. This is as expected, considering the small size of the field. The field appears to be LOD’ed aggressively. This is as expected with the new Flight Simulator 2024 SDK LOD requirements.
Value for the Money
When looking at MK Studios and this most recent offering, this still places MK Studios as a mid-tier developer and product. Things like the MSFS 2020 base simulator assets being used, base simulator AI static aircraft, the poor execution of the interior details in the terminal, and utilizing Arial font for the Signature wordmark do pull the immersion of this product compared to the kind of attention to detail paid to other recent releases from other developers.
The overall product however is still excellent. Considering the only other payware offerings for this airport are especially aged, this updated version is a welcome entry to the market. The overall price point for this product seems a bit high when taking into consideration other competing products of much higher detail and much larger airports being closely priced to this one.
