World War II

The airport opened as Lafayette Municipal Airport on November 29, 1930. On July 5, 1942, during World War II, the airport was commandeered by the United States Army Air Forces and used as a contract primary pilot training airfield under the AAF Gulf Coast Training Center (later Central Flying Training Command). The 384th Army Air Force Base Unit administered the contract to a civilian-operated primary flying school (Lafayette School of Aeronautics) as a sub-base of DeRidder Army Air Base, Louisiana, which also had four auxiliary airfields located nearby for emergency and overflow landings. Fairchild PT-19s were the primary trainer; several PT-17 Stearmans and a few P-40 Warhawks were assigned.

Control of the airfield was transferred from DeRidder AAB to Third Air Force (Esler Field) on March 24, 1944. The mission of base became training of replacement combat aircrews. On September 30, 1945, the airfield was deactivated and returned to civil control.

Postwar civil use: airline service

In 1948, Eastern Air Lines began the first scheduled passenger service into Lafayette. During the 1950s, Eastern operated up to ten flights a day with Martin 4-0-4 and Convair 340 twin prop "Silver Falcon" airliners with up to five flights a day to New Orleans via Baton Rouge and up to five flights a day to Houston Hobby Airport via Lake Charles, LA and Beaumont/Port Arthur, TX. According to its December 1, 1958 system timetable, Eastern was operating a daily round trip flight with a Convair 340 on a routing of Brownsville – Corpus Christi – Houston Hobby Airport – Beaumont/Port Arthur – Lake Charles – Lafayette – Baton Rouge – New Orleans – Mobile – Pensacola – Montgomery – Birmingham – Atlanta. Other Eastern flights featured continuing, no change of plane service to such destinations as Charlotte and San Antonio. Eastern served Lafayette until the mid-1960s with Convair 440 propliners when it then ceased all service into the airport.

Trans-Texas Airways (TTa) began serving Lafayette during the mid-1950s. In 1956, TTa was operating two departures a day with Douglas DC-3 aircraft to Shreveport via an intermediate stop in Lake Charles with continuing service to Dallas and on to Fort Worth via stops in the east Texas cities of Longview, Marshall and Tyler. By 1959, Trans-Texas had expanded its DC-3 service from the airport with four nonstop flights a day to New Orleans as well as two nonstop flights a day to Alexandria, LA with continuing service to Little Rock via stops in El Dorado, AR and Camden, AR in addition to maintaining its two flights a day schedule to Shreveport and Dallas. Flights to Houston were then introduced during the 1960s which were operated with Douglas DC-3 and Convair 240 propliners followed by Convair 600 turboprops. By 1969, Trans-Texas Airways had changed its name to Texas International Airlines. Also in 1969, locally-based Acadiana Airlines, a commuter air carrier, was operating scheduled passenger flights nonstop between the airport and New Orleans with five roundtrip services operated on weekdays flown with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprop aircraft.

The first jet service into the airport was operated by Texas International Airlines (TI) with Douglas DC-9-10 twinjets to Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, New Orleans and other cities. Texas International introduced jets into Lafayette with the DC-9 in the early 1970s. TI also served the airport with Convair 600 turboprops. According to the Official Airline Guide (OAG), during the 1970s Texas International was operating direct one stop, no change of plane DC-9 jet flights from Mexico City to Lafayette via a stop in Houston in addition to nonstop DC-9 jet service to the airport from New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Beaumont, TX and Lake Charles, LA as well as direct DC-9 flights from Dallas/Fort Worth, Abilene and San Angelo. In February 1976, TI was operating direct DC-9 jet service from Los Angeles (LAX) to Lafayette with six intermediate stops en route via Albuquerque, Roswell, NM, Midland/Odessa, TX, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and Beaumont. By December 1979, Texas International was operating nine jet flights a day into Lafayette with Douglas DC-9-10s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s with nonstop service from Houston (IAH), New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Beaumont, TX and Lake Charles, LA with direct, no change of plane jet service from Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW), Denver, Los Angeles (LAX), Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Brownsville, TX, McAllen, Amarillo and Lubbock. In 1982, Texas International was operating three DC-9 flights a day from Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) to Lafayette via Houston (IAH). A fourth daily DC-9 flight was operated from Houston to Lafayette as well by TI at this time. Later that year Texas International was merged into Continental Airlines which in turn continued to serve Lafayette with Boeing 727-100, Boeing 727-200, Douglas DC-9-10 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jet flights to Houston. Continental jets were then replaced by Continental Express ATR 72, ATR 42 and Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia regional turboprop aircraft. Continental later reintroduced mainline nonstop jet service between the airport and Houston (IAH).