Hovden opened on 1 July 1971 as a municipal airport having cost 5.9 million Norwegian krone (NOK).

Until 1993 Widerøe served it using the de Havilland Canada Twin Otter as a feeder service to Ålesund Airport, Vigra.

[4] For the southern parts of Sunnmøre, the airport incurred a travel time of two to three hours, including two ferries.

[5] Møre og Romsdal Fylkesbåtar introduced a hovercraft service from Ørsta via Hareid to Ålesund and Vigra in April 1965.

By the time of the fall storms the authorities withdrew the operating certificate due to safety concerns.

Håkon Kyllingmark was appointed Minister of Transport and Communications in 1965 and was a proponent of the STOLport proposal.

The political rationale was that, despite that the total operating costs would rise, it would provide better services to rural areas and thus keep up their population.

The municipal councils approved the plans in early 1970 and an operating concession was granted by the government on 3 July.

The airport was run by an inter-municipal board and subordinate to the municipal engineer in Ørsta.

During the first years the airport had notoriously poor regularity, and in the last quarter of 1972 half the flights were canceled.

New navigational aids were installed in 1987, including a localizer and a new radio beacon, lowering the visual range to 550 meters (1,800 ft).

[16] Ownership of the airport passed to the Civil Aviation Administration (later renamed Avinor) on 1 January 1997.

With the opening of the Eiksund Tunnel that year Ulstein, Herøy and Hareid were all given a fixed link to the airport.

[21] All services at the airport are operated by Widerøe with their fleet of de Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 aircraft.

[24] Hovden served 121,021 passengers, 6,294 aircraft movements and handled 2 tonnes of cargo.

[2] Fram operates a local bus service between Ørsta and Volda every half-hour during the day and every hour during the evening.