Early development

The former international airport of Zhengzhou, known as Zhengzhou Dongjiao Airport, was built in 1956. However, the airport, which had a 2,400 meter long and 45 meter wide runway, capable of handling airliners as large as a Boeing 767, was too close to the city center, worsening the air and noise pollution, especially from jet-powered planes like the Trident and Boeing 737. Development of many buildings in the area worsened the dire situation, thus risking aircraft-related accidents. Hence, to meet the demand of city development, a plan to build a new airport in Xuedian Township, Xinzheng to replace the old Dongjiao Airport was approved in 1992. The new airport was originally named Zhengzhou Xuedian Airport (Chinese: 郑州薛店机场) after the township of its location and was later changed to the current name. Construction began in 1993 and the new airport was opened on 28 August 1997 with a terminal of 45,900 square meters and a runway (Runway 12R/30L) of 3,400 m. The designed capacity of the terminal was 3.8 million passengers a year. All the flights of Dongjiao Airport were transferred to the new airport. Dongjiao Airport was later demolished to build the Zhengdong New Area CBD on its site.

In 2000, the airport was approved by the state council to become the 21st international airport in China.

From 2005 to 2007, the original terminal underwent a major expansion and renovation. The new terminal (current Terminal 1) has an area of 128,000 square meters and was opened on 29 December 2007.

Phase II expansion

In 2013, the state council approved the expansion project of the airport, including a new terminal (Terminal 2), the second runway (Runway 12L/30R) and a ground traffic center (GTC), in alignment with its first airport-based economy zone (Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone). The construction started in 2012, and was finished in 2015. Terminal 2 was opened on 19 December 2015 together with the GTC, and the second runway was opened on 7 January 2016, making the airport the first with two terminals and two runways in central China.

Recent development

After Foxconn Zhengzhou (the main production base for iPhone, located just to the north of the airport) was put into operation in 2010, the cargo transport of the airport has been booming. Between 2010 and 2017, the cargo volume handled by the airport increased from 85,798.1 to 502,714.8 metric tonnes, growing by 34 percent yearly on average, making it the seventh busiest airport in China by cargo traffic.

Long-haul and intercontinental passenger services from the airport also began to emerge in recent years. In late 2015 Emirates announced it would begin service from Dubai to Zhengzhou via Yinchuan from May 2016, as part of the airline's expansion plans in China. This is Zhengzhou's first connection to the Middle East. The service started from 3 May 2016 and stopped from November 2018. On 11 November 2016, Sichuan Airlines launched non-stop flights to Vancouver. It is the first regular non-stop intercontinental passenger service for the airport. Non-stop flight service to Melbourne were initiated by Jetstar on 6 December 2017. This was the first air route to Australia from the airport.

The airport rail link services between Zhengzhou city center and the airport became available after the completion of the ground traffic center in 2015, including the Zhengzhou–Xinzheng Airport intercity railway, which started operations from 31 December 2015 and served as an express link, and Zhengzhou Metro Chengjiao line, which started operations from 12 January 2017.

In 2017, the airport surpassed Wuhan Tianhe International Airport and Changsha Huanghua International Airport in terms of passenger traffic, making it the busiest airport in central China in both passenger and cargo traffic.