The main USAAF use of Istres was by the 64th Troop Carrier Group, which operated Douglas C-47 Skytrain transports from the airfield from September to November 1944.

With the end of the war, the Americans used Istres as a staging point between Occupied Germany and Morocco for air transport of personnel back to the United States.

[8] Sometime after World War II, until May 1958, Base Aérienne 125 was host to the Royal Air Force Liaison Party, that serviced transient British and Commonwealth military aircraft staging to and from the United Kingdom.

On 31 March 1992, Trans-Air Service Flight 671, a Boeing 707, made an emergency landing at Istres after engines 3 and 4 had separated from the wing in turbulence at 35,000 feet (11,000 m).

The aircraft performed a flapless, downwind landing with a touch-down speed of nearly 200 knots (370 km/h; 230 mph) and the right wing on fire from the pouring fuel.

The incident brought to light severe deficiencies in Kabo Air's operations — the aircraft had passed mandatory maintenance and was overloaded.