[2] The present Air Terminal Building (ATB) was opened in 1967, and, upon opening, included immigration and customs facilities for international passengers; a restaurant, lounge, gift shop, and car rentals, as well as other amenities for air travelers; a control tower and administrative offices.

[12] On 6 May 2022 Brian Comer, MLA for Cape Breton East, on behalf of Economic Development Minister Susan Corkum-Greek announced a $6.3-million investment from the Province.

[13] On 14 November 2023, Member of Parliament for Cape Breton—Canso, Mike Kelloway, on behalf of the Minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez, announced that the Government of Canada funding, through Transport Canada’s Airports Capital Assistance Program, is providing more than $7.4 million to rehabilitate Runway 06-24, including associated edge lights.

[18] Avis, Budget and National/Enterprise car rental agencies are located in the air terminal building.

[19] By the late 1920s the Canadian government, in hopes of building the nation's aviation sector, made it policy to encourage the establishment of local flying clubs that could lead to increased flight training and the development of community airfields across the country.

An Order-in-Council was passed in September 1927 and the Controller of Civil Aviation was tasked with supporting and approving the creation of these flying clubs.

All work to build the club's two air strips, each initially 1,800 feet (550 m) long, was done by volunteers, with the nearby town of Glace Bay loaning bulldozers to help clear and level the land, and Mr. MacMillan loaning the club a barn to use as a hangar.

[21] The first aircraft to land at the new Cape Breton Flying Club Field was a Buhl Airsedan, named Bluenose, owned by Rollie D. Archibald and flown from San Francisco by Vernon Dorell, arriving at the airfield on June 6, 1929.

[24] In 1937 the government chose a site near the Cape Breton Flying Club's air strip for a new aerodrome for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and in 1938 began construction of the aerodrome which included three four-thousand foot runways.

The field was listed as "all hard surfaced" and had three runways listed as follows:[28] By May of 1942 Sydney Airport had become a regular stop on Trans-Canada Airlines's passenger service which was operating flights across Canada, connecting Sydney to Moncton, New Brunswick, and St. John's, Newfoundland, with the cost per ticket for inter-airport flight, Sydney-Gander or Sydney-St. John's at $8.00.

[29][30] In December 1945, with hostilities at an end, the RCAF handed control of the airport over to the Department of Transport to develop into a civilian aerodrome.

[31] All the buildings not required by Transport were declared surplus and sold; the airport was designated as an alternate for the North Atlantic air route, and a licence was issued on March 10, 1947.

[26] According to the December 15, 1978 edition of the Official Airline Guide (OAG), two airlines were serving Sydney at this time including Air Canada with two daily nonstops from Halifax, NS operated with McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets with these flights also providing direct no change of plane service from Montreal and Ottawa, and Eastern Provincial Airways with three daily flights operated with Boeing 737-200 jets with two nonstops from Halifax and one nonstop from Stephenville, NL with these services also providing direct no change of plane flights from Gander, NL, Montreal, Saint John, NB and St. John's, NL plus a fourth flight operated daily except on Sundays nonstop from Halifax flown with a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 turboprop.

[33][9][34] On July 27, 2009, the Sydney Airport was renamed after John Alexander Douglas McCurdy, a Canadian aviation pioneer who set a series of aviation records, the first British subject to fly a heavier-than-air machine, and the first Canadian to pilot a flying machine in Canada when he flew the Silver Dart off the ice in Baddeck.