[1] It is owned by the city of Carlsbad and located five nautical miles (6 mi, 9 km) southwest of its central business district.

Cavern City Air Terminal covers an area of 1,980 acres (801 ha) at an elevation of 3,295 feet (1,004 m) above mean sea level.

[1] For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2019, the airport had 8,649 aircraft operations, an average of 24 per day: 37% general aviation, 60% scheduled commercial, and 3% military.

A small commuter carrier named Bison Airlines served the city for a couple years in the early 1960s as well.

In 1963 Continental transferred its route authority for Carlsbad to Trans-Texas Airways which modified the eastbound flights to go directly to Dallas.

Trans-Texas later changed their name to Texas International Airlines (TI) and replaced the DC-3s with 40-seat Convair 600 turboprop aircraft.

In 1979 TI ended their service transferring their route authority over to commuter carriers Air Midwest and Crown Airlines.

For a very short time in the spring of 1987, Continental Express operated by Trans Colorado Airlines served the city with flights to Albuquerque and El Paso also using Metroliners.

Pacific Wings, dba New Mexico Airlines, then stepped in with flights to Albuquerque, El Paso, and Midland/Odessa but used much smaller and unpressurized Cessna 208 Caravans.