For more than a century, Oklahoma City’s primary airport has connected locals to other cities across the country.
Starting in 2025, however, OKC Will Rogers International Airport finally has the infrastructure in place to accommodate international flights that are scheduled to begin in November 2025.
What began as a simple airstrip in 1911 for aviation pioneers has grown into a modern airport that sees millions of passengers come through the gates each year. Looking ahead to the next 25 to 30 years, officials have launched a long-term master plan that expects the annual passenger rate to grow from 4.6 million people a year to 20 million.
OKC’s first official airport opened in 1932
In 1932, the airstrip officially became the Oklahoma City Municipal Airport. On April 1 that year, a Ford Trimotor airplane operated by Transcontinental and Western Air was the first passenger aircraft to set down on the new runway.
The Oklahoma City Times described the Trimotor, which held about a dozen passengers and crew, as a “huge” plane.
Located on the 640-acre airport was the terminal, a four-story building that Aero Digest magazine lauded in 1933 because of its modern conveniences including lighting and radio equipment.
Air traffic controller Paul Kerr gives directions to a plane coming in for a landing at Will Rogers Field in 1947.
Airport used as wartime base
By 1941, the OKC Municipal Airport had been renamed for Oklahoma-born humorist Will Rogers who died in an Alaskan plane crash a few years earlier alongside another famous Oklahoman, Wiley Post. Post would later have his own name attached to another, smaller, airport in the city.
Will Rogers Field was used during World War II as a training facility for fighter and bomber pilots headed to combat.
A Braniff Airlines plane is pictured in this 1951 photos next to the terminal building at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.
Airport expanded commercial passenger service after WWII
By the mid-1950s, there were nearly 50 passenger flights leaving Oklahoma City every day. Those passengers accounted for the more than the 34 million domestic travelers in the sky, according to data reported by the Air Transport Association.
As commercial aviation became safer, cheaper and more accessible to the general public, Oklahoma City built a new terminal building and concourses in the 1960s to replace the original layout.
The terminal entrance at Will Rogers Airport is pictured in this 1979 file photo.
Will Rogers grew with passenger demand, security needs
Will Rogers World Airport saw a significant amount of construction in the new millennium with a $110 million multi-phase expansion and renovation in 2001. That project included the construction of new concourses that replaced ones built in the 1960s.
The renovation project also added boarding gates featuring a mix of native stone architecture steel and glass, expanded security check-ins and introduction of local eateries and stores in the concourse.
By 2021, construction at the airport led to an expansion of the terminal, along with gates and a boarding bridge that will accommodate international flights. The latest phase of construction built out the Federal Inspection Station, where Customs and Border Protection will clear international passengers for entry into the United States.
Travelers are pictured at OKC Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, July, 22, 2025.
Construction on the inspection facility has been completed and CBP is scheduled to take possession of the space in August.
Starting Nov. 8, 2025, American Airlines will offer weekly service to and from Cancun, Mexico, representing the first international flight in a “generation” and the first where travelers go through customs in OKC rather than at another U.S. airport along the way. The service will be seasonal and lasts until April 2026.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: From simple airstrip to bustling hub: OKC airport’s century of growth