The history of Tashkent Airport dates back to the early 20th century. On 12 May 1924, the first passenger flight was completed on a Junkers R-13 aircraft along the Tashkent–Pishpek–Almaty route.

On 8 August 1930, the first airlift connected Moscow with Tashkent. The first Moscow-Tashkent-Moscow flight was operated on a K-4 aircraft.

In 1957, the Tu-104 jet aircraft began operating on the Moscow-Tashkent-Moscow route. This was preceded by a radical upgrade of the radar and communication services. New landing systems, RSP-4, were introduced in Tashkent. Then, the Romashka radar system was deployed.

In 1958, Tashkent Airport was granted the status of an international airport of Class I.

In 1967, the Yakovlev Yak-40 and T-34 variants aircraft were introduced. The capital of Uzbekistan was connected by direct air links with Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Ukraine, Chelyabinsk, Simferopol, cities of the Baltic states, the Caucasus, and the Far East.

On 20 September 1972, the supersonic Tu-144 aircraft made its first flight on the Moscow-Tashkent-Moscow route. The cruising speed of the airliner reached 2,500 km/h (1,600 mph), and it covered the distance from Moscow to Tashkent in 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Independent Uzbekistan

On 28 January 1992, Uzbekistan Airways was established. In the same year, the airline, under its code HY, operated its first international flight from Tashkent to London on an Il-62 aircraft.

In 1993, the airport served 1,409,900 passengers. During the mid-1990s, significant renovations were carried out with the help of Western construction companies.

This ICAO Category II airport is the primary hub of Uzbekistan Airways, the largest international airport in Uzbekistan, and the busiest in Central Asia. The airport comprises two terminals: Terminal 2 receives international flights, and Terminal 3 is for domestic traffic.

In March 1995, Uzbekistan Airways started flights from Tashkent to New York City via Riga. It used Airbus A310s on the route. Terminal 2 was rebuilt in 2001, and renovations were completed in 2018. It has a capacity of 1000 passengers/hour and serves more than two million passengers per year. Facilities include waiting lounges, CIP and VIP halls, restaurants and bars, currency exchange offices, duty-free shops, airlines ticket counters and sales offices, and a 24-hour pharmacy.

Terminal 3 opened in 2011 with a capacity of 400 passengers per hour. The two terminals are separated by the runway, requiring passengers transiting from international to domestic flights and vice versa to exit the airport in order to transfer between them. In July 2017, Uzbekistan Airways began offering nonstop service to New York using its Boeing 787 fleet.

On 25 January 2017, the airport was named after Uzbekistan's First President, Islam Karimov.

Expansion

Since 2021, the area of the international terminal at Tashkent International Airport has expanded by nearly 50%, growing from 45,000 to 65,000 square metres (484,376 to 699,654 sq ft).

In August 2024, another stage of building expansion was completed at Tashkent International Airport's terminal. Large-scale reconstruction works included the renovation of the facade, the departure hall, and the waiting areas for passengers and visitors. A drop-off zone for passengers was added near the entrance, allowing vehicles to approach the first floor. A new hall for passengers and those seeing them off was also introduced, along with a small green recreation area equipped with benches. The airport also began testing a passenger monitoring system called Pax Track.

In November 2024, Tashkent International Airport began an expansion of its arrival hall. The terminal's façade will be extended forward, increasing the area nearly twofold. The expansion will allow for the addition of two baggage carousels and a new area for meet-and-greet services inside the building. The arrival hall's area is set to increase by 2,500 square metres (26,910 sq ft), expanding from the original 5,300 square metres (57,049 sq ft). The project is slated to be completed by May 2025, with the final phase involving the merger of the departure and arrival terminals. This will create a unified airport complex with a capacity to handle 2,400 passengers per hour.

In 2024, the airport served 8.7 million passengers, which is 28% more than the previous year's results. It is the busiest airport in Uzbekistan as well as the 7th busiest in the former Soviet Union.

By 2026, the airport plans to merge its arrival and departure terminals.