In 1931, the Friedman family donated a large part of land for the new airport, just before it was officially recognized in 1932. According to historic photographs, the site had been used for aviation as early as 1916. Scheduled commercial passenger service began at the airport in the late summer of 1960 with the arrival of West Coast Airlines, a forerunner of both Air West and Hughes Airwest. According to various West Coast Airlines system timetables during the 1960s, the airline was serving Sun Valley with Douglas DC-3 and Piper Navajo twin prop aircraft. West Coast successor Air West briefly served Friedman with Piper Navajo twin prop commuter aircraft, which served nonstop flights to Boise, Salt Lake City, and Portland, Oregon, following West Coast's merger with Bonanza Air Lines and Pacific Air Lines to form Air West in 1968.

While successor Hughes Airwest never served Hailey and Sun Valley, they flew the Douglas DC-9-10 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets into the Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF) in Twin Falls, which was advertised in its various system timetables during the 1970s as being the "jet gateway" for Sun Valley.

Service during the 1970s & 1980s

Historically, in addition to the aforementioned West Coast Airlines and Air West propeller aircraft service, the airport had scheduled passenger jet flights provided in the past on a seasonal basis during the winter ski season operated by Horizon Air and America West Airlines. Horizon Air flew Fokker F28 Fellowship jets nonstop to San Francisco and Seattle while America West flew Boeing 737-300 jetliners nonstop to Los Angeles, Phoenix and Boise with direct, no change of plane jet service to Las Vegas and San Jose, CA. The Boeing 737 was the largest aircraft ever to serve Sun Valley on a scheduled basis. Following the cessation of these F28 and 737 flights, the airport did not have scheduled passenger jet service for many years until Delta Connection and United Express introduced Canadair CRJ-700 jet flights into Sun Valley in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

In the 1970s, the airport was served by Sun Valley Airlines (later "Sun Valley Key Airlines" which then changed its name to Key Airlines) using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, Convair 440, Piper Navajo and other propeller-driven aircraft. The airfield was also briefly served over the years by Gem State Airlines, Mountain West Airlines, Golden Gate Airlines and Scenic Airlines. Transwestern Airlines provided service for two years, until sidelined by a non-fatality accident near Hailey in 1983 which involved an emergency landing attempt on Highway 75. It was acquired later that year by Horizon Air, which began service in the early 1980s. Air Idaho served the airport as well during the mid 1970s with de Havilland Heron four engine commuter prop aircraft.