Postal flights to Bodø started in 1921, and before 1940 Bodø was served with seaplanes by Widerøe.

The first runway at Bodø Airport was built during World War II by British troops, after Germany had invaded Norway. On 26 May 1940, three Royal Air Force Gloster Gladiators, led by Flight Lieutenant Caesar Hull, landed and made the first airborne defence for the city. The area was swampland, and the first makeshift runway – built in May 1940 by Allied forces during the Norwegian Campaign (8 April–10 June 1940) of World War II – consisted of wooden planks floating on the water. Soon the German Luftwaffe seized control over the airport and held it for the duration of the war, among other things upgrading the runway to concrete.

Not much was done with the airport until after the Korean War started in 1950. The West were afraid of a Soviet attack on Western Europe, so a new military base was constructed at a new location south-west of the old one. Originally planned to be finished in 1951, the new airport did not become fully operational until 1956, though the civilian terminal opened in 1952. From then on, fighter jets have been stationed at Bodø. In 1988, NATO injected vast amounts of money to enable the airfield to handle large air forces in the event of an emergency.

The airport was used during the testing of the supersonic Concorde in June 1975.

In the early 1980s, the current civilian terminal was discussed and planned. The Norwegian Ministry of Finance approved the project early in 1988. The construction started a few weeks after its approval and was completed in spring 1990. The terminal has 11 gates, three with jetways. Since its opening in 1990, the number of passengers increased from 820,000 to 1,700,000 in 2013.