Foundation and early years

In 1983, the domestic traffic operated by Linjeflyg moved from Bromma to Arlanda, using the terminal now known as Terminal 4. In 1990, two new domestic terminals called "Domestic 2 and 3" were built south of the first domestic terminal. In 1992, the terminal 2 was partly abandoned because of traffic decrease. It started to be used for international traffic the year after, and the main domestic and international terminals were renumbered into 4 and 5.

Development since 2000

The third runway was built between 1998 and 2002; however, a recession in 2002 delayed its opening until 2003. At that time, protests were raised by people living under its flight path in the municipality of Upplands Väsby. Traffic has recovered since and is now showing healthy increases, but the third runway is only used during peak hours for environmental reasons. In September 2010, the first Airbus A380 superjumbo landed at the airport.

In early 2014, Swedavia announced plans for further expansions of the airport terminal complex, including the construction of an additional pier for Terminal 5 in order to better accommodate larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8 and address forecasts of rising passenger numbers. The plans were approved by the Environmental Court of Appeals in December 2014, and construction was scheduled to commence in the spring of 2015.

In the spring of 2020, most flights were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SAS decided to fly only four domestic departures and four domestic arrivals from Arlanda, plus some international flights, after 6 April 2020 while Norwegian cancelled all flights from Arlanda except to Oslo. Terminal 2, 3 and 4 closed and terminal 5 handled all passengers during this period (March 2020 – October 2021) The passenger figures were 97.7% lower in April 2020 than in April 2019. The figured picked up later, but in early 2021 were still more than 80% less per month than 2019.

In the spring of 2022, passenger figures rose again to more normal levels. This caused capacity problems, especially in the security check, because most of its staff were fired due to the pandemic recession. Additionally followed with the time to find and get security approval for and educate new staff. Terminal 4 could not open because transfer between it and Terminal 5 required a security check, and the security check was congested already, so Terminal 5 became congested. Swedavia built a new pedestrian tunnel between the two terminals, bypassing the security check area. It opened together with Terminal 4 at the end of June 2022.

In September 2024, Braathens Regional Airlines announced it would discontinue its regular flight services and relocate its operations from Bromma Airport to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, as a contract operator for SAS. This decision is expected to cause Bromma to lose around 90% of its traffic, potentially hastening its closure, and leaving Arlanda as Stockholm County's only public airport.