The airfield was constructed between mid-1940 and early 1941 for use by the Royal Air Force, being initially named RAF Bobbington.

[8] The following units were also here at some point:[9] Wolverhampton Airport is located 5 mi (8.0 km) from the edge of the West Midlands conurbation and operates a number of general aviation services including facilities for private aircraft; business jets; helicopters; flying schools; and training and maintenance facilities.

The small-airfield image the airport has retained was under threat until late 2006 as previous owner CityHopper Ltd had ambitious plans to expand the airport for airline usage, initially by up to 500,000 passengers a year which would necessitate construction of a new longer runway;[10] plus intended open-air facilities to test jet engines for Boeing 737s.

New owner MAR Properties Ltd announced on 24 November 2006 that such plans had been dropped and it had no intention to expand to allow scheduled passenger services, its intention being to expand on the current general aviation and flying school activity[12] which had been in steady decline at the airport since the late 1990s.

Recent developments involve the potential of a GNSS Approach, which would allow aircraft to land in bad weather, without the need for expensive ILS equipment.