The Government of Maharashtra planned a greenfield airport at Shirdi, a town known for the temple of spiritual guru Sai Baba. The nearest existing airports at Aurangabad and Pune were located 125 km (78 mi) and 186 km (116 mi) from Shirdi respectively. The airport was planned at Kakadi, about 15 km (9.3 mi) southwest of the town. It was developed at a cost of ₹3.4 billion (US$35 million) by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC). The land acquisition for the airport was completed in December 2009, and the airport was expected to be planned by December 2011. The construction was delayed due to changes to the original plan, such as revising the runway length from 2,000 m (6,600 ft) to 3,200 m (10,500 ft), and floor plan for the terminal building. A smaller terminal building compared to the original plan, and a revised runway length of 2,500 m (8,200 ft) was finalised to save costs. The airport was planned to completed before the centenary celebrations of Sai Baba's samadhi in 2018.

The MADC completed the construction work by February 2016 and sought approvals from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for an aerodrome licence to commence operation of commercial flights. The DGCA issued the licence on 21 September 2017, to operate aircraft based on Visual Flight Rules. The first aircraft, an ATR-72, operated by Alliance Air, landed at Shirdi airport on 26 September 2017. The airport was inaugurated for commercial operations on 1 October 2017 by the President of India.