In 1934, Manuel Viana launched a weekly mail and passenger service between Aruba and Curaçao, with A.J. Viccellio piloting Loening C-2H Air Yacht PJ-ZAA from a mud-flat runway. Commercial services were taken over by KLM from 24 December 1934. Later they were transferred to a graded runway known as the KLM field. KLM's Snip, the PJ-AIS a Fokker tri-motor, ushered in the scheduled flying age in Aruba on 19 January 1935. Together with the KLM's "Oriol", the PJ-AIO, also a three-engine Fokker, they flew until 1946, after which they were scrapped.

On its bi-weekly Aruba-Curaçao operations, KLM transported 2,695 passengers on 471 flights.

During World War II, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Forces Sixth Air Force defending Caribbean shipping and the Panama Canal against German submarines. The airfield was renamed Dakota Field; the terminal facilities became Dakota Airport. Flying units assigned to the airfield were:

59th Bombardment Squadron (9th Bombardment Group) 14 January-24 September 1942 (A-20 Havoc)

12th Bombardment Squadron (25th Bombardment Group) 10 October 1942 – 23 November 1943 (B-18 Bolo)

22d Fighter Squadron (36th Fighter Group) 2 September 1942 – April 1943 (P-40 Warhawk)

32d Fighter Squadron (Antilles Air Command) 9 March 1943 – March 1944 (P-40 Warhawk)

On 22 October 1955, the airport was named after Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands during a royal visit. It was renamed in 1980 after her accession to the throne.

On 3 March 2021, American Airlines celebrated its 50 years flying to and from Aruba.

As part of Phase 1A of Gateway 2030, a massive airport expansion project, the airport built a new U.S. Check-In Terminal with sufficiently advanced baggage handling equipment, thereby relieving U.S.-bound passengers of the burden of reclaiming baggage and undergoing another screening. The first flights began from the new terminal on April 8, 2025.