The song was released in April 2010, as the third single from his debut studio album, B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray.

B.o.B co-wrote the song alongside Kinetics & One Love, Alex da Kid, DJ Frank E, and Christine Dominguez.

[a] "Airplanes" was composed by B.o.B, Jeremy "Kinetics" Dussolliet, Tim "One Love" Sommers, DJ Frank E, Alex "da Kid" Grant, and Christine Dominguez.

[14] The second time the song was performed together live was during Vanderbilt University's Fall 2010 "Commodore Quake" concert in Nashville.

[12] B.o.B shot his scenes for the video in April, but Williams was only able to shoot her parts after the end of Paramore's Spring tour, so they were never in the same room during filming.

[18] The song continued to rise in the chart and peaked at number two on its sixth week, losing the top position to Usher's "OMG".

[20][21] "Airplanes" had sold over 4 million digital downloads by December 2010, according to Nielsen Soundscan, becoming a bigger success in the United States than his debut single, "Nothin' on You".

[23] In Europe, the song has been released in a number countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

[28] When asked how he got to collaborate with Eminem, B.o.B stated: "Paul Rosenberg played him the Cloud 9 mixtape and it kind of gave him an idea of what my music [sounds like].

"Airplanes, Part II" received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals,[6] although it was not made into a single.

Eleven years after its release, the song regained attention in July 2021 when it was referenced in a viral TikTok featuring fanart made by user bluedog444 on DeviantArt in 2012.

The TikTok featuring the song and art has received 300 million views since its post, spawning an influx of memes.

The appeal of the meme comes from the absurdity of the pairing, as well as nostalgia due to DeviantArt's primarily adolescent user base.

[31] Hayley Williams also responded to the meme the following month in two Tweets after a self-imposed social media break noting her bewilderment.