The airport was established in 1938 following a decree issued by King
Carol II. Through the decree, the airport was meant to be used both as a public airport and a military one in case of war. The airport had a dirt runway with dimensions of 1000×200 m. Between 1950 and 1952, a
concrete runway, as well as the first airport facilities were constructed. On 6 May 1957,
Li-2 aircraft began flying on the
Craiova -
Bucharest route. The control tower was built in 1959, and between 1959 and 1972 the runway was extended to . Between 1972 and 1989, other airport facilities were built. From 1995, the airport was opened to domestic and international traffic, serving only
charter flights. Runway renovation works took place in summer 2015. Since July 2014, Craiova Airport is the base for
Wizz Air which serves 14 destinations in 7 countries. In March 2018,
Ryanair announced it would terminate all services at Craiova by October 2018 which had operated since November 2016 and consisted of a single route to
Valencia. ==Airlines and destinations==