The airport was established in 1932 as part of the Royal Flying Club under the initiative of Lt. Col. Raja Goda Varma, husband of Karthika Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi, the Rani of Attingal and Travancore Kingdom. Raja Goda Varman, a trained pilot, felt the need for an airport to accommodate Travancore in the aviation map of India and requested the Travancore Durbar to initiate the process of establishing an aerodrome. A detailed report was made and presented to the King by Consort Prince in this regard. It may be mentioned that the King was the brother of Lt. Col. Raja's wife, and the colonel's children were the heirs to the throne. In 1935, on the royal patronage of Maharaja Chithira Thirunal, Tata Airlines made its maiden flight to the airport using an DH.83 Fox Moth aircraft under command of pilot Nevill Vintcent carrying Jamshed Navoroji, a Tata company official, and Kanchi Dwarakadas, commercial agent of Travancore in Karachi, with a special mail from the Viceroy of British India, Lord Willingdon, wishing birthday greetings to the Maharaja. The first flight took off on 1 November 1935, carrying mails of Royal Anchal (Travancore Post) to Bombay. In 1938, the Royal Government of Travancore acquired a Dakota as the Maharaja's private aircraft and placed the first squadron of the Royal Indian Air Force (Travancore) for protection of the state from aerial attacks. After Independence, the airstrip was used for domestic flights with the construction of a new domestic terminal, Terminal 1. International operations were initiated by Air India to cities in the Arabian Peninsula in the late 1970s using Boeing 707. By the early 80s, the then-Indian Airlines started service to Colombo, followed by service to Male. Later, Gulf Air, SriLankan Airlines (then Air Lanka) and Air Maldives (now Maldivian) started operations. These were followed by Indian Airlines, which started a service to Sharjah. On 1 January 1991, TIA was upgraded to an international airport, making it the fifth international airport of India after Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. On 1 March 2011, the first flight operated from the new international terminal, Terminal 2. IX 536 (Air India Express) from Sharjah marked the first arrival. Air India Express operated the first departure to Dubai from this new terminal. IndianOil Skytanking is the company that introduced single-man refuelling in India and started refuelling operations at Trivandrum in March 2016. In November 2018, the Central Government cleared a proposal by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for leasing out six of its airports, including Thiruvananthapuram. The following month, AAI commenced an international competitive bidding process to award Operations, Management and Development (OMD) contracts for the six airports. The Adani Group, GMR Group and Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) participated in the bidding process that was won by the Adani Group. Since some public interest litigations were filed concerning the bidding process for the airport, the Union Cabinet gave its approval for awarding the airport to Adani subject to the outcome of Writ Petition. Accordingly, AAI signed a letter of agreement with Adani in September 2020. Adani Thiruvananthapuram International Airport Limited (ATIAL), floated by the Adani Group to run the airport, would operate, manage and develop the airport for fifty years. As per the agreement, ATIAL would get control of the airport only after a concession agreement was executed and the performance bank guarantee was paid and subject to clearance of legal hurdles.