Early years

In 1919, when the England to Australia air race was announced, Parap Airfield was established in the suburb of Parap to act as the Australian terminal. It operated as two airports, a civilian airport and a military field.

The airfield frequently took hits from Japanese bombing through the Second World War, and was used by the Allies to project air power into the Pacific. The airport hosted Spitfires, Hudson Bombers, Kittyhawks, C-47s, B-24 Liberators, B-17 Fortresses and PBY Catalinas.

In 1945, the Department of Aviation made the existing Darwin military airfield available for civil aviation purposes. As a result, the civilian airport at Parap was closed down and civilian airport operations were combined with military operations at Darwin airport.

On 20 April 1954, Soviet spy Evdokia Petrova defected at Darwin Airport while she was being escorted out of Australia by KGB agents.

Between 1950 and 1974 Darwin Airport acted as the primary domestic and international airport for the Northern Territory and an important stop for airlines flying between Australia and Asia and onwards to Europe. Air France, UTA, BOAC, Alitalia and Air India were some of the airlines that had scheduled services to Darwin. However, the introduction of longer range aircraft in the 1970s meant that many airlines did not need to stop over in Darwin, and so they chose to cease services.

Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin in 1974 and flattened the city. The airport was used to ferry 25,628 people out of Darwin. Darwin Airport was extensively used to assist UN operations in East Timor from 1999, and to support medical evacuations following the 2002 Bali bombings.

A new passenger terminal with four aerobridges built by John Holland, opened in December 1991.

21st century

Expansion of the low-cost carrier business model in the Australian market during 2007–08 saw both Jetstar and Tiger Airways Australia express interest in developing Darwin Airport as a hub. With Darwin's proximity to Southeast Asia, Jetstar anticipated that it would be able to make flights using smaller aircraft, such as the Airbus A320 to fly anywhere within 4 to 5 hours from Darwin. Singapore-based Tiger maintained a route between Changi Airport and Darwin until 2008, with its Australian subsidiary operating domestically to Melbourne (and later Brisbane). However, plans for a Darwin hub failed to eventuate. Jetstar established a Darwin base, with flights to Singapore, Bali, and Tokyo via Manila but most of these routes would be withdrawn by May 2013.

In 2008, the Australian Infrastructure Fund (AIX), which holds 28.2% of Northern Territory Airports, announced that the airport would undergo a $60 million expansion to cater for growing passenger numbers. Among other improvements, it would provide a 65 per cent increase in terminal floor space.

During the 2008–09 financial year, a total of 1,538,938 passengers passed through Darwin International Airport which consisted of 188,530 international passengers and 1,350,408 domestic passengers.

In April 2009, Garuda Indonesia suspended the Denpasar service from Darwin after nearly 30 years of service, citing "economic reasons". The move drew protests from the Northern Territory government. The suspension left Darwin Airport without any non-Australian carriers flying there until late 2010 when Indonesia AirAsia started services from Bali to Darwin. Despite this, the number of passengers passing through the airport grew by 2% to 1,569,007 (207,825 international) passengers during the 2009–10 financial year.

In December 2010, the Federal Government approved the Darwin Airport Master Plan, a 20-year blueprint guiding the airport's development as an international transit point between Europe, Asia and Australia. 2012 and 2013 saw a major boost for Darwin Airport when foreign carriers SilkAir, Indonesia AirAsia, Philippine Airlines and Malaysia Airlines started direct flights to Singapore, Bali, Manila and Kuala Lumpur respectively. However, the increased competition from these carriers forced Jetstar to abandon its base in Darwin and redeploy its aircraft to Adelaide instead. Only flights to Bali were retained; the Singapore route was taken over by Jetstar Asia with Singapore-based aircraft and crews.

On 9 May 2015, a major expansion of the terminal was officially opened. The $85 million expansion increased the floor area from 16,000 to 27,000 square metres (172,223 to 290,626 sq ft) to double the capacity of the airport at peak periods. Works enlarged the arrivals and departures areas, added four new domestic and two new international boarding gates, additional security screening areas, a larger check-in area and a new multi-use baggage reclaim area for both domestic and international arrivals.