During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command used the airport as a refuelling stop on its Pacific transport route from Hawaii to Canton Island for flights to Australia and New Zealand as well as a staging point for attacks on the Gilbert Islands, then partially occupied by Japan. The airport was expanded considerably during the war, and the World War II runway configuration can still be seen as abandoned runways and aircraft parking areas in aerial photography.

By 1981, Air Tungaru, the former national airline of Kiribati, was operating nonstop Boeing 727-100 jet service to both Honolulu and Tarawa as well as nonstop flights to Papeete, Tahiti with this latter service being operated in conjunction with Union de Transports Aériens (UTA), a French airline. Aloha Airlines introduced weekly nonstop Boeing 737-200 jet service to Honolulu in 1986. In 1994, Air Nauru was flying Boeing 737-200 jets nonstop to Honolulu and Tarawa with the latter flight also operating same plane direct service to Nauru. During the early 2000s, Aloha Airlines was once again operating nonstop Boeing 737 service to Honolulu.