Beginnings and expansion

In 1939, Ernie Renzel, a wholesale grocer and future mayor of San Jose, led a group that negotiated an option to buy 483 acres (195 ha) of the Stockton Ranch from the Crocker family, to be the site of San Jose's airport. Renzel led the effort to pass a bond measure to pay for the land in 1940. In 1945, test pilot James M. Nissen and two partners leased about 16 acres (6.5 ha) of this land to build a runway, hangar and office building for a flight school. When the city of San Jose decided to develop a municipal airport, Nissen sold his share of the aviation business and became San Jose's first airport manager. Renzel and Nissen were instrumental in the development of San Jose Municipal Airport over the next few decades, culminating with the 1965 opening of what later became Terminal C.

San Jose's first airline flights were Southwest Airways Douglas DC-3s on the multistop run between San Francisco and Los Angeles, starting in 1948. Southwest changed its name to Pacific Air Lines and was the only airline at the airport until 1966, when Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) started flying Lockheed L-188 Electras nonstop from LAX and Boeing 727-100s later that year. SJC's first airline jets were Pacific Air Lines Boeing 727-100 nonstops to LAX earlier in 1966; Pacific 727s flew nonstop to Las Vegas in 1967. Pacific also flew Fairchild F-27s to SJC, and merged with Bonanza Air Lines and West Coast Airlines to form Air West which was renamed Hughes Airwest, continuing at SJC with McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s before it merged into Republic Airlines (1979–1986). In 1968, United Airlines arrived, with Boeing 727 nonstops from Denver, Chicago and LAX, and Douglas DC-8 nonstops from New York and Baltimore.

The runway which became 12R/30L was 4,500 feet (1,400 m) until about 1962— Brokaw Rd was the northwest boundary of the airport. In 1964 it was 6,312 feet (1,924 m), in 1965 it was 7,787 feet (2,373 m), and a few years later it reached 8,900 feet (2,700 m), where it stayed until around 1991. The two runways are now both 11,000 feet (3,400 m) in length.

In the early 1980s, the airport was one of the first in the country to participate in the noise regulation program enacted by the U.S. Congress for delineation of airport noise contours and developing a pilot study of residential sound insulation. This program showed that homes near the airport could be retrofitted cost-effectively to reduce indoor aircraft noise substantially.

1988–2010: boom and bust

American Airlines opened a hub at San Jose in 1988, using slots it obtained in the buyout of AirCal (formerly Air California) in 1986. In 1990, Terminal A was opened to help accommodate the American operation. The company launched a flight to Tokyo using McDonnell Douglas DC-10s in March 1991. This was San Jose's first direct link to Asia. The aircraft proved ill-suited for the route; the San Jose airport's short runway prevented the planes from taking off with a full cabin and fuel tanks. Consequently, American replaced the DC-10s with McDonnell Douglas MD-11s.

Amid financial losses and intense competition with Southwest Airlines, American closed its San Jose hub in 1993. Reno Air then opened a San Jose hub using the gates previously occupied by American as well as a marketing agreement with American. Reno Air was profitable in 1996 but suffered financial losses in 1997, and American acquired Reno Air in 1998, thereby re-establishing a hub in San Jose.

In April 2001, American commenced a route to Paris, the airport's first transatlantic flight. The airline operated the service with a Boeing 767. By the summer of that year, the airline served Paris, Taipei, and Tokyo nonstop from San Jose and had domestic flights to Austin, Boston, Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Maui, Orange County, Portland, Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle.

In November 2001, the airport was renamed after Norman Y. Mineta, a native of San Jose, its former mayor and congressman, as well as both a former United States Secretary of Commerce and a United States Secretary of Transportation. That same month, the San Jose City Council approved an amended master plan for the airport that called for a three-phase, nine-year expansion plan. The plan, designed by Gensler and The Steinberg Group, called for a single, consolidated "Central Terminal" with 40 gates (four more than present), an international concourse and expanded security areas. The sail-shaped facade would greet up to 17.6 million passengers a year. A people mover system would link the new terminal with VTA light rail and the planned BART station next to the Santa Clara Caltrain station. Cargo facilities would be moved to the east side of the airport. A long term parking garage would be built where the rental car operations are now. A short term parking lot would be built on the site of Terminal C. On December 16, 2003, the San Jose Airport Commission named the airfield after former mayor Ernie Renzel and named the future Central Terminal after James Nissen. In August 2004, the city broke ground on the North Concourse, the first phase of the master plan.

The originally-approved master plan was scaled-back in 2005.