Origins

Prior to the development of the airport, the area formed part of the delta of the San Diego River that discharged into San Diego Bay. The river was later rerouted to discharge into the Pacific Ocean west of Mission Bay.

The airport is near the site of the Ryan Aeronautical Company factory, where the Spirit of St. Louis was built for Charles Lindbergh's historic 1927 transatlantic flight. The aircraft was flight-tested at Dutch Flats Airport, Ryan's airfield located near the intersection of Midway and Barnett avenues on the opposite side of Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.

Inspired by Lindbergh's flight and proud to have produced his aircraft, the city of San Diego approved a bond issue in 1928 to construct an airport. Lindbergh encouraged the project and agreed to lend his name to it. The airport was dedicated on August 16, 1928, as San Diego Municipal Airport – Lindbergh Field, with 140 Navy and 82 Army aircraft participating in a flyover.

The airport was the first federally certified airfield to serve all aircraft types, including seaplanes. The original terminal stood on the northeast side of the field along Pacific Highway.

The airport also served as a testing site for several early U.S. sailplane designs, including those by William Hawley Bowlus, superintendent of construction on the Spirit of St. Louis. Bowlus operated the Bowlus Glider School at Lindbergh Field from 1929 to 1930.

In 1930, Ruth Alexander set national and world altitude records for women at the airport.

The airport was the departure point for the first transcontinental glider tow, flown by Capt. Frank Hawks. The flight departed Lindbergh Field on March 30, 1930, and arrived at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City on April 6, 1930. Regular San Diego–Los Angeles airmail service began on June 1, 1930. The airport gained international airport status in 1934.

In April 1937, a United States Coast Guard air base was commissioned next to the airfield. The Coast Guard operated fixed-wing aircraft from Lindbergh Field until the mid-1990s, when those aircraft were reassigned elsewhere.

Consolidated Aircraft (later Convair) had its headquarters adjacent to Lindbergh Field and manufactured military aircraft there during World War II. Today the airport's rental car facility occupies part of the former factory, and the nearby street is named Liberator Way, after the company's B-24 Liberator aircraft. Convair used the airport for test and delivery flights from 1935 to 1995.

The United States Army Air Corps took control of the field in 1942 and expanded it to accommodate heavy bombers manufactured in the region. Two cantonment areas, Camp Consair and Camp Sahara, were established at the airport during World War II. Improvements included construction of an 8,750 ft (2,670 m) runway capable of accommodating large aircraft before jet airliners entered airline service. A May 1952 chart shows an 8,700-foot runway 9 and a 4,500-foot runway 13.

Jet age

Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) established its headquarters in San Diego and started service at Lindbergh Field in 1949. The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 42 departures per day: 14 American, 13 United, 6 Western, 6 Bonanza, and 3 PSA (5 PSA on Friday and Sunday). American had a nonstop flight to Dallas and one to El Paso; aside from that, nonstop flights did not reach beyond California and Arizona. The first scheduled flights using jets at Lindbergh Field were in September 1960: American Airlines Boeing 720s to Phoenix and United Airlines 720s to San Francisco. Nonstop flights to Chicago started in 1962 and to New York in 1967.

The airport was built and operated by the City of San Diego through the sale of municipal bonds to be repaid by airport users. In 1962 it was transferred to the San Diego Unified Port District by a state law. The original terminal was on the north side of the airport; the former Terminal 1 opened on the south side of the airport on March 5, 1967. Originally Terminal 1 was only 1 story tall and had no jet bridges, however between 1981 and 1983 Terminal 1 East was given a second floor and jet bridges, and the same was done with Terminal 1 West between 1989 and 1991. Terminal 2 also originally opened on July 11, 1979. These terminals were designed by Paderewski Dean & Associates.

Western Airlines discontinued service to Mexico City in 1981, leaving the airport without any international flights. However, in June 1988, the airport's first transatlantic flight was opened, a British Airways flight to London's Gatwick Airport using Boeing 747s and McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. As San Diego airport's customs facility had not been used in seven years and was not up to the US Customs Service's latest security requirements, inbound travelers had to clear customs in Los Angeles, which made the journey cumbersome. After the Port District performed the necessary upgrades, San Diego Airport's customs facility reopened in 1989 - nevertheless, British Airways ended the route in November 1990.

Between 1991 and 1993, the airport's second runway (Runway 13/31) was closed and retrofitted into taxiways D and F.