The airport's six-gate 165,000 sq ft (15,300 m2) Hayden Wilson Head Terminal, designed by Gensler, opened on November 3, 2002, with a theme of "When the Sun Meets the Sea.

However, Chautauqua then closed this crew base in November 2008 with the airline ceasing to operate United Express flights from Corpus Christi.

[6] The Dallas Love Field-Corpus Christi nonstop route operated by Southwest Airlines began on August 10, 2019, with one daily round-trip flight between the cities each Saturday.

[1][9] In 2017, the airport had 97,012 aircraft operations, an average of 266 per day: 66% military, 18% general aviation, 8% air taxi, and 8% commercial airline.

In 1935, Braniff Lockheed Model 10 Electras flew Brownsville - Corpus Christi - San Antonio - Austin - Waco - Fort Worth - Dallas Love Field.

[15][16] In 1958, Eastern Convair 440s flew Brownsville - Corpus Christi - Houston Hobby - Beaumont/Port Arthur - Lake Charles - Lafayette - Baton Rouge - New Orleans - Mobile - Pensacola - Montgomery - Birmingham - Atlanta.

[17] Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) was flying Douglas DC-3s between Houston and Mexico City via Corpus Christi in 1947 with a daily roundtrip routing of Houston Hobby Airport (HOU) - Corpus Christi - Brownsville - Tampico - Mexico City with the airline having a name for this international service, being the "Sun Ray Clipper".

[19][20] Trans-Texas Airways (TTa) arrived in 1950; in 1952, its Douglas DC-3s flew a multi-stop routing of Brownsville - Harlingen - McAllen - Alice - Corpus Christi - Beeville - Victoria - Houston.

[5] Following its name change from Trans-Texas Airways (TTa), in 1974 Texas International Airlines was operating daily DC-9 jet service between Corpus Christi and Mexico City via McAllen as well as direct DC-9 flights to Denver and Salt Lake City via Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) or San Antonio.

The same year, Texas International DC-9s flew direct to Los Angeles (LAX) via stops in Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Midland/Odessa, Roswell, NM, and Albuquerque.

By 1984, Austin-based Emerald Air was operating as an independent carrier with up to ten DC-9 jet and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 turboprop departures a day nonstop to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Houston (IAH), and McAllen.

[38] In 1999, Delta Connection operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines Canadair CRJ-200 regional jets were flying nonstop to Atlanta.