During World War II, the British Raj established an airfield near Cox's Bazar. It was converted into a domestic airport by the central government of Pakistan in 1956, seven years after the city was incorporated into the Pakistani province of East Bengal (later East Pakistan). The airport was damaged during the Bangladesh Liberation War and was renovated and reopened in 1972. According to civil aviation sources, in 2009, the government had planned to rapidly modernise the airport to accommodate fighter jets, if required.

Expansion and development

Plans to upgrade Cox's Bazar Airport into an international facility began in 2012. The development is being carried out in two phases, intended to improve aircraft handling capacity and accommodate wide-body planes. The upgrade's initial cost was ৳3 billion (US$24 million).

In the initial stage of construction, the runway was extended "6,775 feet to 9,000 feet in length and from 120 feet to 200 feet in width". Additionally, its load-bearing strength and lighting systems were upgraded, and "Doppler VHF Omni-direction Range and distance measurement equipment" were installed. Fueling services, under the operation of Standard Asiatic Oil Company Limited, a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, began in February 2017.

The second phase of expansion involves adding another 1,700 feet to the runway. "Officials said a 1,300-foot stretch of the runway's expanded portion would be under the sea"; construction will add "blocks in the sea" which is the first time this technique will be used in Bangladesh.

On 13 October 2025, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism issued a notification declaring the airport as an international airport. Eleven days later, on 24 October, the government suspended the gazette that declared the airport as an international one before its first flight took off due to local and foreign airlines showing no interest in launching flights to Cox's Bazar, finding them commercially unviable.