The City of El Paso built the first El Paso Municipal Airport near the east side of the Franklin Mountains in 1928. Alderman Robert N. Mullin was credited as the person responsible for getting the airport built. The airport was closed by 1945 and in more recent times has been home to the Jobe Concrete Products "Planeport" cement factory.

In 1934, Varney Speed Lines (now United Airlines) operated at the original El Paso Municipal Airport (now closed). The original El Paso Municipal Airport construction was inspired by a visit from Charles Lindbergh.

What became today's El Paso International Airport was built as Standard Airport by Standard Airlines in 1929 for transcontinental air mail service. Standard Airlines became a division of American Airlines in the 1930s. In 1936, American Airlines "swapped" airports with the City of El Paso, and El Paso International Airport was born.

During World War II, the airport was a United States Army Air Forces training base. Units which trained at El Paso Army Airfield were:

385th Bombardment Group (Heavy) (B-17 Flying Fortress) December 21, 1942 – February 1, 1943

Served with the 8th Air Force in England.

491st Bombardment Group (Heavy) (B-24 Liberator) November 11, 1943 – January 1, 1944

Served with the 8th Air Force in England.

497th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) (B-29 Superfortress) November 20 – December 1, 1943

Served with the 20th Air Force at Saipan.

On August 3, 1961, El Paso was the last stop of the first major US hijacking of a jetliner, a Boeing 707 owned by Continental Airlines.

An expansion that tripled the size of the terminal occurred in 1971. A new structure for ticketing and bag claim was built in front of the old terminal and two passenger concourses were built behind the old terminal, retaining the old terminal in the middle, the outline of which can still be recognized today. It was designed by Garland & Hilles.

Serving general aviation at El Paso International Airport, Cutter Aviation established a fixed-base operation in 1982. Cutter Aviation moved to a new facility on Shuttle Columbia Drive in 2006. Atlantic Aviation also serves general aviation at ELP.

Historical airline service

Standard Air Lines began the first scheduled commercial passenger and mail service to El Paso on February 4, 1928, with a route to Los Angeles making stops in Douglas, Tucson, and Phoenix, Arizona. The carrier began using a Fokker F-7 aircraft and soon upgraded to a Fokker F-10 trimotor. Maddux Air Lines soon followed beginning service on February 23, 1929, with nearly the same route as Standard Air Lines however Maddux continued on from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Maddux used a Ford trimotor aircraft but the service ended later in 1929 by the time of the great stock market crash. Western Air Express replaced Standard on the route to Los Angeles for a short time in 1930 and extended service eastward from El Paso to Dallas stopping at Big Spring, Abilene, and Fort Worth, Texas. American Airways then took over the route beginning on October 15, 1930, and later extended the route eastward all the way to New York, stopping at Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, and Washington D.C. as well as several other points. The carrier changed its name to American Airlines in 1934. Douglas DC-3 aircraft were primarily used in the latter 1930s through 1940s followed by Convair 240's and Douglas DC-6's in the 1950s. A new route to Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico was flown from 1943 through 1957 and direct service to San Francisco was added in 1948. Through the 1950s, American partnered with Continental Airlines offering an interchange service where American's flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco, stopping in Phoenix, would continue eastward through El Paso as Continental's flights to San Antonio and Houston using the same Douglas DC-6 aircraft. The interchange flights ended in 1961 when American received its own authority to serve the El Paso-San Antonio-Houston route. American Boeing 707 and Boeing 727 jets began serving El Paso in the early 1960s and widebody Douglas DC-10 jets began service on nonstop flights to Dallas in 1972. The stop at Douglas, Arizona, on westbound flights ended in the mid-1960s and new nonstop service to Chicago was added in 1969. Direct flights to San Antonio, Houston, Tucson, and San Francisco ended after airline deregulation in 1978 and American's service to Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, and Los Angeles continues today.

From 1929 to 1931, Mid-Continent Air Express operated a route from El Paso to Denver stopping at Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, NM, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs. From 1931 through 1934, Western Air Express took over this route and extended it onto Cheyenne, WY.

Continental Airlines was the second major airline to serve El Paso. The carrier began as Varney Speed Lines in 1934 operating the northerly route from El Paso but only to Pueblo, Colorado, with stops at Albuquerque and several other points in New Mexico and Colorado. The name was changed to Continental Air Lines in 1937 and the route was extended back to Denver.