In the year ending June 1, 2022, the airport had 29,895 aircraft operations, average 82 per day: 83% general aviation, 13% air taxi, 3% military, and <1% commercial.

[2][3] The building houses airport administration and maintenance, a café, rental cars, a bus service, as well as the Hickory Aviation Museum.

Riverhawk Aviation (and its subsidiary companies), which was the airport's only FBO, voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

On December 9, 2011, the City of Hickory assumed all FBO operations in order to insure no interruption in general aviation services occurred at the airport.

On Monday, October 23, 2017, an EF2 tornado (confirmed by the National Weather Service's Greenville/Spartanburg bureau) occurred at the airport, destroying two hangars and several privately owned planes, along with several vehicles.

In 1947 the Civil Aeronautics Administration opened the Hickory Interstate Airways Communications Station, housed in a wooden structure on the south side of the field, at the former FBO site.

As the Flight Service Station, this operation is now housed, along with a portion of the Systems Maintenance Sector, in the modern Terminal Building.

In Fall 1973 the Federal Aviation Administration commissioned an Air Traffic Control Tower at the Hickory Airport.

From 1952 to 1980 Piedmont Airlines Douglas DC-3s, Martin 404s, Fokker F27s, Fairchild Hiller FH-227s, and NAMC YS-11s flew to cities such as Asheville, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Tri-Cities Area and Atlanta.

CCAir would be later acquired by Mesa Airlines who would end its US Airways Express flights to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in April 2002.

In 2005 Delta Connection (Atlantic Southeast Airlines) Bombardier CRJ200s flew direct to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, before ceasing service in the fall of that year.