Nagoya Airport served as the main airport for Nagoya until the opening of Chubu Centrair International Airport on February 17, 2005. This airport IATA Airport Code used to be NGO (now overtaken by the new Centrair airport), and its ICAO Airport Code used to be RJNN when it was classified as a second class airport; the new designations are NKM for regional flights and RJNA designation for general aviation flights. Aichi Prefecture manages the facilities and regularly handles international business flights.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Nagoya Airport was a busy international airport because of overflow from Japan's other international airports, New Tokyo International Airport (now Narita International Airport) near Tokyo and Osaka International Airport (Itami Airport) near Osaka.

Since the opening of Kansai International Airport in 1994, the airport's main traffic source has been the nearby automotive and manufacturing industries, causing carriers such as United Airlines (San Francisco and Chicago–O'Hare) and Delta Air Lines (Portland (OR)) to stop flying to Nagoya. Some discount holiday flights still operated from Nagoya, drawing passengers from the Kansai region.

On the other hand, the cargo handling capacity of Nagoya Airport was not enough to satisfy the demands from the regional economy and air cargo shifted to Narita and Kansai.

In addition, the airport was hampered by its location in a residential area of Aichi Prefecture, limiting the number of flights that can use the airport, as well as the hours in which they can fly.

Because of these reasons, a new airport, Chubu Centrair International Airport, was built on an island south of Nagoya. On February 17, 2005, nearly all of Nagoya Airport's commercial transport flights moved to Centrair. On the same day, the old airport became a general aviation and airbase facility. The airport was also renamed to its current name at the same time. It also became J-Air's headquarters and hub after relocation from Hiroshima-Nishi Airport. The airline continued to operate through the airport until 2011 as the result of corporate restructuring of its parent company Japan Airlines resulted in the airline's departure from the airport and moving its operation base to Itami Airport in Osaka. At the same time after J-Air's departure, Fuji Dream Airlines opened a base at the airport and was the only airline to fly from the airport since then. A dedicated business aviation terminal and commuter flights within Japan then became the key features of Nagoya's secondary airport. The Aichi Museum of Flight opened at the airport in November 2017.

Military use

Imperial Period

Nagoya Airport was first opened in 1944 as a military airport named Kamake Airfield. It was primarily used as the home base of the 55th Sentai of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. As such, it was attacked on several occasions during the Pacific War in 1944 and 1945 by USAAF B-29 Superfortress bombing raids.

U.S. period

After the end of World War II, the airfield was taken over by the American occupation forces and renamed Nagoya Air Base. Reconstruction of the heavily damaged airfield began and in May 1946, Nagoya became the headquarters of the Fifth Air Force, which controlled Air Force occupation units throughout Japan. In December 1950 during the Korean War, Fifth Air Force headquarters was moved to South Korea; however, it returned to Nagoya Air Base in September 1954 and remained until July 1957 when it moved to Fuchu Air Station in Tokyo as part of the USAF return of Nagoya Airport to Japanese control.

The U.S. primarily used Nagoya Air Base as a headquarters station for the next ten years, stationing several command and control units at the base:

308th Bombardment Wing, 1 Mar 1947-30 Jun 1948

Moved to Nagoya in March from Kimpo Air Base, South Korea where it had been performing occupation duty since moving there from Okinawa in September 1945

85th Fighter Wing, 1 Jun 1947-30 Jun 1948

Moved from the Philippines to set up an air defense organization in Japan.

314th Air Division, 1 Dec 1950-1 Mar 1952

Activated at Nagoya. During the Korean War it assumed the missions of airfield construction and defense of Japan as well as providing logistical support for the Fifth Air Force.

Operational use from the airfield began in February 1947 when the 347th Fighter Group (All Weather) began operating P-61 Black Widow interceptor aircraft, which were used to provide air defense for Japan. It operated from the airfield until June 1950 when the Black Widows were retired and the unit was inactivated.

After the Armistice in South Korea which ended combat, the 49th Fighter Group moved to Nagoya Air Base with F-84 Thunderjets. The unit provided air defense until June 1957 when it moved to Misawa Air Base.

The 6110th Air Base Group, which had maintained the base and the myriad of ground support units at the base since the Americans moved in during 1946 began phasing down after July 1957.