The first flight landed at the airport on 23 December 1936 when Tata Sons operated an airmail service between Madras and Colombo via Tiruchirappalli. The flight was operated by a Miles M4A Merlin aircraft (registration VT-AHC), and was piloted by Homi Dhanjishaw Bharucha. A weekly airmail operated on the Bombay–Tiruchirappalli route, with various stopovers, during early 1937 which later made connection to the Colombo service at Tiruchirappalli. The regular airmail service on the Madras–Colombo route began on 28 February 1938. During the early years, the airfield consisted of a 600 m (2,000 ft) runway and an Air traffic control tower. During the Second World War, RAF station Kajamalai was established at the airfield by the British Royal Air Force. The aircraft landed in the airfield for carrying out repairs at the nearby workshop at Ponmalai. The base was used from May 1942 to early 1944, with three squadrons operating out of the airfield. It served as the headquarters of the No. 173 Wing (25 November 1942–19 October 1943) and No. 171 Wing (1 August–8 November 1943) during the war. During and after the war, the airfield was used for aircraft maintenance and calibration. It housed the Nos. 121, 101, and 138 Repair & Salvage units (1942–1945), No. 2 Civil Maintenance unit (1943–1946), No. 1580 Calibration Flight (February 1944–October 1945), No. 1583 Calibration Flight (February 1944–15 November 1945). It was also used as a center for ferry flights (April 1944–February 1946), and as a staging post (March 1945–April 1946), and personnel transit centre (September 1945–November 1945). In 1947, the Ceylon government requested the Indian government permission to operate flights between Colombo and Trichinopoly in 1947. The Indian government improved the airport to make it operational for commercial flights with the flight operations to Colombo beginning in February 1948. On 3 December 1948, Air Ceylon inaugurated a regular weekly commercial service between Colombo and Karachi, using a Douglas DC-3 aircraft via Tiruchirappalli and Bombay. In 1950, Air Ceylon operated daily flights from Colombo to Tiruchirapalli via Jaffna. Two years later, Air India started operating daily flights on the Bombay-Madras-Tiruchirappalli-Colombo route, which was later transferred to the Indian airlines. In the late 1980s, Air Lanka operated regular weekly flights from Tiruchirappalli to Colombo. In the 1990s, Indian Airlines started operating regular international flights to the Middle East. In the late 2000s, the airport became a hub for low cost carriers operating to South East Asia. A new passenger terminal building was commissioned in 2009, and the old passenger terminal was converted to handle cargo operations. The airport was categorised as a customs airport until 4 October 2012, when it was given international status by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. In 2012, a request was made to name the airport after scientist C. V. Raman, who was from the city. Later, requests were made to rename the airport after A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in 2015. As a part of a proposed expansion plan in the 2010s, the AAI intended to expand the airport by 210 ha (510 acres) with the extension of the runway, addition of new parking bays, and construction of a new passenger terminal and ATC complex. In 2014, the airport was one of the non-metro airports selected for ?2 billion (US$21 million) development in a Public-Private Partnershipmodel. The new integrated passenger terminal was opened in 2024 and replaced the terminal built in 2009.