Military beginnings The Fresno Yosemite International Airport opened as a military airfield in June 1942, just six months after Japan's
attack on Pearl Harbor, leading the United States to enter
World War II. The new airfield was named Hammer Field and was used by the
United States Army Air Forces as a training facility for the new pilots of the
Fourth Air Force. It had a single northwest/southeast oriented runway with a length of 7,200 feet (now runway 11L/29R). issued a "Greetings from Hammer Field"
large letter postcard Night fighter training, using
Northrop P-61s, was moved to Hammer Field in January 1944, initially with the
481st Night Fighter Operational Training Group, replaced by the 319th Wing in May 1944. Training for the
Bell P-59 Airacomet was added to the 319th mission in 1944, as well, confirmed Col. Ralph H. Snavely, commanding officer of the 319th Wing. At the time, civil and commercial aviation used
Chandler Field that had opened in November 1929. Chandler is west of downtown Fresno, on a small site. Less than a decade after it opened, it was clear that the small runway at Chandler would not be able to accommodate coming larger airliners. The California Air National Guard moved to the airport in the 1950s and established the Fresno Air National Guard Base on the southeast corner of the property. The guard also built
munition storage bunkers along the northern edge of the airport grounds. The
194th Fighter Squadron moved to the facility in late 1954, followed by the
144th Fighter Wing in 1957. As the guard moved in, a second parallel runway (11R/29L) was constructed and opened to traffic in 1956. From the central lobby, passengers used a tunnel to reach the open-air, remote
concourse where they boarded planes from ground level. Although renovated, the original terminal building is still in use today for the same functions that it was designed for. The current air traffic control tower was built around the same time as the terminal and opened in 1961.
United was the dominant carrier at the airport throughout the mid-1970s. At the airlines' peak, United operated daily
DC-8s jet service to
Denver,
San Francisco and
Los Angeles.
Hughes Airwest and
PSA jets also served the airport at this time. The first significant expansion to the passenger terminal came in 1978 when a concourse was built straight out from the central lobby. This building, unlike the original remote concourse, was enclosed and climate-controlled.
Delta Air Lines operated mainline jets to
Los Angeles,
Salt Lake City and
Reno in the mid-1990s, but by 1999, the only mainline jet flights remaining at Fresno was the
American Airlines service to
Dallas/Fort Worth. In 1996, the airport's name was changed from Fresno Air Terminal to Fresno Yosemite International Airport to attract out-of-state and international visitors to
Yosemite National Park to the airport. Despite the new name, scheduled international commercial flights would not begin operating in Fresno for nearly a decade. In recent years, airport managers have embraced the FAT identifier code, naming a major expansion project “FATforward.” Fresno has been the headquarters for a few airlines throughout its history. In the mid-1980s, Far West Airlines was founded in Fresno and used the airport as a small intrastate hub serving Burbank, Los Angeles, Modesto, Oakland, Orange County, Sacramento, and San Jose.
Air 21 was founded in Fresno in January 1994 and operated service between several western cities before ceasing operations in January 1997.
Allegiant Air was founded in Fresno in January 1997 with a single DC-9, offering charter flights to Tahoe and other destinations. By 1999, it expanded to three planes serving Las Vegas, Burbank, and South Lake Tahoe. After declaring bankruptcy in 2000, its headquarters moved to a Las Vegas suburb under new leadership.
Expansion and remodeling At the turn of the 21st century, the city began a series of projects to expand and remodel the passenger terminal. The first and most notable project was the expansion of the boarding areas. The project, designed by
DMJM Aviation, extended the concourse further, creating a new two-level section with six
jet bridges. Before this project, passengers boarded all planes using
stairs or ramps. When completed in 2002, the new concourse building received praise for its design and was named one of the top 10 projects in Fresno Architecture for the decade, with critics commending the use of steel and the curved glass facade. A
U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility for international arrivals was added in early 2006, giving federal officials space to check
passports and complete
customs work. Completion of that facility allowed Fresno to begin receiving scheduled international commercial flights. The first international service started in April 2006 with
Mexicana operating flights between Fresno and
Mexico City with an intermediate stop in
Guadalajara. With the new concourse extension and new international arrivals facility completed, portions of the original 1960s terminal building were given a major renovation. The project was designed by
CSHQA and completed in several phases between 2006 and 2010. While keeping the facility operational, nearly every part of the building was updated, including the baggage claim area, security checkpoint, central lobby, ticketing area, and low-level concourse. The centerpiece of the project was “Sequoiascape,” a public art display in the central terminal lobby that depicts a life-size replica sequoia forest, reflecting the airport's role as a gateway to the nearby national parks. The giant trees appear to be supporting the roof of the terminal. They are surrounded by fallen logs, foliage, and the split rail fencing and granite curbs that visitors would see at the region’s national parks. A
consolidated rental car facility opened at the airport in 2009. The $22 million project allows customers of most rental car companies to pick up and drop off vehicles just outside the terminal. The project also included the construction of maintenance buildings and storage lots on a nearby 11-acre site. The secondary runway (11R/29L) was widened, lengthened and strengthened in a $30 million project completed in October 2012.
Southwest Airlines began serving the airport on April 25, 2021, the first time the airline provided services at Fresno's airport, with daily flights to Las Vegas and Denver. The airport added a 917-space, four-level parking garage in November 2021. The project cost $32 million. == Future expansion ==