Roxas Airport began operations on a dirt track in Barangay Loctugan in the year 1947. National flag carrier Philippine Airlines was the first to serve it. In 1951, then-incumbent Philippine president Elpidio Quirino visited the province using this airport to inaugurate Roxas City as a charted city. Later, former first district Congresswoman Carmen Dinglasan-Consing created an initiative for a bigger and better airport. With that, all airport operations were moved to the present site in 1957, situated in a plot of land under the jurisdictions of barangays Baybay, Gabu-An, and Mongpong. The Loctugan landing field is now the site of the Roxas City School for Philippine Craftsmen.

Two other airlines, Air Manila International and Filipinas Orient Airways, also served the airport following its relocation, each having one daily flight from Manila to Roxas. Their operations were taken over by Philippine Airlines in 1973 when the re-elected Ferdinand Marcos's Martial Law government issued Letters of Instruction nos. 151 and 151-A, both known as the one-airline policy. The airport suspended operations from March 1975 to March 1976 to allow the runway's concreting. Roxas Airport later welcomed the jet age when Philippine Airlines flew a BAC-11 on their Manila-Roxas route. Later on, the runway was extended to the current length of 1,893 meters.

With the abolition of the one airline policy during the Corazon Aquino administration, Roxas Airport welcomed other airlines, among them being Cebu Pacific, which began their services in the 1990s using DC-9's until the switch to Airbus A320's in 2006. More improvements were made to the airport in the 2000s.

In 2013, then-incumbent president Benigno Aquino III laid the foundation for the construction and expansion of Roxas Airport along with the improvement of its facilities. The airport underwent a major facelift in 2015 and in 2016, Roxas Airport installed newer and more modern runways lights and energy-efficient LED floodlighting to allow for night operations. In 2017, the airport was night rated by the Department of Transportation and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.