Origins Nashville's first airport was Hampton Field, which operated until 1921. It was replaced by Blackwood Field in the
Hermitage community, which operated between 1921 and 1928. The first airlines to serve Nashville,
American Airlines and
Eastern Air Lines, flew out of Sky Harbor Airport in nearby
Rutherford County. By 1935, the need for an airport larger and closer to the city than Sky Harbor Airport was realized and a citizens' committee was organized by mayor
Hilary Ewing Howse to choose a location. A plot along Dixie Parkway (now
Murfreesboro Pike) composed of four farms was selected, and construction began in 1936 as one of the first major
Works Progress Administration projects in the area. The airport was dedicated on November 1, 1936 as Berry Field, named after Col. Harry S. Berry, the Tennessee administrator for the
Works Progress Administration. It opened in June 1937 with much fanfare, including parades, an
air show and an aerial bombardment display by the
105th Aero Squadron, which was based at the field. Passenger service began in mid-July through American Airlines and Eastern Airlines, both of which operated
Douglas DC-3s. The new airport had three asphalt runways, a three-story passenger terminal, a
control tower, two hangars and a beacon, and was built at a cost of $1.2 million. In its first year, Berry Field served 189,000 passengers. During
World War II, the airfield was requisitioned by the
United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command as the headquarters for the 4th Ferrying Command for movement of new aircraft overseas. During this time, the federal government expanded the airport to . At the end of the war, the airport was returned to the control of the city, with a number of facilities remaining for support of the
tenant unit of the Tennessee National Guard. By the 1970s, the airport was again in need of expansion and modernization. In 1973, the newly created
Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) finalized a plan for the long-term growth of the airport; the plan included a new terminal and a new parallel runway across
Donelson Pike to increase capacity by reducing time between takeoffs and landings. Besides providing nonstop flights to many cities in the U.S. and Canada, American also operated a transatlantic flight from Nashville to London. The American hub was touted as a selling point in bringing companies such as
Nissan and
Saturn Corporation to the Nashville area. Nonetheless, the hub operated at a loss even during its heyday in the early 1990s, as did its similarly sized hub at
Raleigh/Durham. American's service peaked in 1993 with 265 daily departures to 79 cities, after which flights were gradually scaled back until the hub closed in 1995. In 2002,
Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services (EAMS) selected Nashville as the location for its Regional Airline Support Facility, which was built on the site of the demolished 1961 terminal building. In October 2006, the Nashville Metropolitan Airport Authority started an extensive renovation of the terminal building designed by Architectural Alliance of
Minneapolis and Thomas, Miller & Partners, PLLC, of Nashville, the first since the terminal opened 19 years prior. The first phase of the project, completed in 2009, involved updating and expanding food and vending services, improving flight information systems and construction of a new consolidated security checkpoint for all terminals. The second phase, completed in 2011, involved the expansion of the ticketing and check-in areas, the construction and renovation of bathrooms and the renovation of the baggage-claim areas. The renovated terminal was named the Robert C. H. Mathews Jr. Terminal in honor of a MNAA board chair in 2011.
Recent years Beginning in the mid-2010s, the airport has seen rapid growth in the volume of passengers and flights.
Southwest Airlines, long the dominant airline in Nashville, steadily expanded its operations and made the airport one of its top destinations, including opening a crew base in May 2024. In May 2018,
British Airways inaugurated nonstop service to London, restoring transatlantic service for the first time since American Airlines ended its London service in 1995. To accommodate growth, the Metro Nashville Airport Authority commenced two expansion programs in 2016, entitled BNA Vision and New Horizon, to overhaul and expand many facilities. The BNA Vision upgrades consisted of expanding concourses, constructing a new international arrivals facility, building new parking garages and erecting a hotel. New Horizon's upgrades will include additional concourse expansions, upgrading the baggage handling system and expanding the terminal roadway. BNA Vision was mostly completed in 2023, and the hotel opened in March 2024. New Horizon is scheduled to be completed in 2028. ==Facilities==