[1] Originally consisting of two turf runways, the airport was created after a 1943 vote by the city of Ames.

[5] James Herman Banning was the first African American to obtain a pilots license and was an alumnus of Iowa State University.

[1] In the year ending September 12, 2022 the airport had 30,150 aircraft operations, average 83 per day: 93% general aviation, 5% air taxi and 1% military.

[1] National Transportation Safety Board records show that no fatal accidents have occurred at the airport since 1962, the earliest year which can be searched in their database.

Iowa State University utilizes the airport for charter flights for many of its athletic teams, although its football team must use Des Moines International Airport since Ames does not have runways long enough to accommodate the Boeing 757s and Boeing 767s most frequently used by college football programs for travel.