Early years

On 21 December 1966, the cities of Münster, Osnabrück, and Greven as well as the districts of Münster and Tecklenburg founded the Münster/Osnabrück Airport GmbH.

In mid 1967, the German authorities approached the British Army for assistance in building an airfield to serve the Münster-Osnabrück area. An airstrip existed at Greven, but the site was heavily wooded and included one badly drained and swampy area, and the site was within a few hundred metres of the Dortmund-Ems Canal which had been bombed during World War II, and where the presence of unexploded bombs was suspected. By March 1968, it was agreed that the British Army would clear and level an area 2120 metres long between 400 and 500 metres wide and produce a base of clean sand 1520 metres long and 50 metres wide for a runway, to be used by aircraft of Trident and BAC 1-11 size. Work began in April 1968. 16 Field Squadron Royal Engineers (RE) provided the project control and RE units from all over the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) but particularly 43 Field Support Squadron RE provided manpower and plant.

On 24 September 1968, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia received permission to begin construction. An apron and a 2,000 m (2,200 yd) long runway were built. The ground levelling was performed by BAOR.

Despite many problems, the project was completed on 30 June 1969, within a few days of the planned date. As a gesture to recognise the British Army involvement, the Germans gifted a Ka 7 glider to the regiment and gave them honorary membership in the Greven Gliding club. After five years of construction, the Münster/Osnabrück airport was officially opened on 27 March 1972.

The first charter flight from Münster/Osnabrück airport to Palma de Mallorca took place in 1973.

Development since 1980s

On 29 October 1984, British Airways started to serve the route from Berlin to Münster/Osnabrück with BAC Super One-Eleven; these were the first scheduled jet flights from the airport. Münster/Osnabrück gained the status of an international airport in 1986.

A new terminal building that could accommodate a larger number of passengers was inaugurated in 1995; the new Terminal 2 followed in 2002. The airport intended to extend the runway to 3,600 metres (11,800 feet) to attract intercontinental flights. The plan was the focus of protests from environmentalists, because the expansion would damage the Eltingmühlenbach natural area. In the first phase, the runway would be extended to 3,000 metres (9,800 feet). This would have cost around €60 million. The plan was approved in 2004. Originally, work was scheduled to begin in December 2006. However, among others, Naturschutzbund Deutschland filed a lawsuit against the expansion. In May 2011, the Higher Administrative Court in Münster decided against the expansion because of mistakes made in the Planfeststellungsverfahren which defines details of the runway expansion.

The plan to connect the airport with the Bundesautobahn 1 was realized in November 2010. The cities of Münster and Greven and the Steinfurt district planned to donate an area of around 500 acres (2.0 km2) to the airport for airport-related commercial activities. This met with protests as well, because this plan would endanger the Hüttruper Heide heath.

In 2023, the airport announced a revised corporate design, subsequently dropping the name annex International.