The history of Bintulu Airport began in early 1937 when the British colony built an airfield situated between a river at one end and the sea coast at the other end. Bintulu's old airport was open for operation on 1 September 1955, with a grass-surface runway catering for
de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide and
Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer aircraft operated by
Borneo Airways. In 1963, larger types of aircraft such as
DC-3 services were introduced. In 1966, the runway was resurfaced with bitumen, and the terminal building was extended to cater for an increasing number of passengers. On 1 July 1968,
Malaysia-Singapore Airlines introduced scheduled
Fokker 27 services into Bintulu. The terminal building and the parking apron was extended in 1981 to accommodate
Fokker 50 aircraft. The old airport served the town until 30 March 2003, when it closed and moved to a location outside of town. In September 2005, the first low-cost airline in Malaysia,
AirAsia, started operating in Bintulu airport.
FlyAsianXpress (FAX), a subsidiary company of AirAsia, took over major domestic routes linking
Bintulu. It started its operation on 1 August 2006, and lasted until 30 September 2007. On 1 October 2007,
Malaysia Airlines subsidiary
MASwings took over the link connecting Bintulu. ==Airlines and destinations==