Kristiansand's southerly location caused the airport to receive several international routes during the early years, as well as domestic services.

[3] A government commission recommended on 21 October 1920 that Kristiansand receive a water airport as part of a nationwide investment program.

[7] Norwegian Air Lines (DNL) commenced a coastal seaplane route along the southern coast from Oslo to Bergen via Kristiansand on 9 June 1935.

[8] The government stated in 1935 that it planned on building a main airport for Agder – Kristiansand, Mandal and Arendal were all proposed as suitable hosts.

[10] Meanwhile, a group started looking at Kjevik as a suitable site, led by aviator Bernt Balchen, industrialist Rolf Petersen and Lawyer Hartmann.

A small, wooden terminal building was built of a shed and a nearby residential house was used as a restaurant.

They started an international route from Oslo via Kristiansand to Amsterdam, while Danish Air Lines operated to Copenhagen.

DNL opened a domestic seaplane route from Oslo via Kristiansand to Stavanger Airport, Sola.

[13] The German military planned a large expansion of the airport from 1945, which would have included new aprons and would have obliterated the village.

[18] The upgraded facilities resulted in Kristiansand Municipality wanted to rid itself of the responsibility and cost of running the airport.

The city council passed a resolution of 9 December 1946 offering the airport free of charge to the state.

[20] On 6 March 1946 KLM resumed its route, flying from Oslo via Kristiansand to Amsterdam using a Douglas DC-3.

[21] DNL, through the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) cooperation started an international route on 2 October 1946 from Oslo via Kristiansand, Amsterdam and Brussels to Paris.

[22] DNL started a land plane route from Kristiansand to Stavanger in 1947, but withdrew two years later,[19] using a Douglas DC-3.

They performed various general aviation tasks, including sight-seeing, charter flights for hunters, especially to Setesdal and aerial photography.

[28] Braathens resumed traffic on 6 June 1955 when it opened a route from Oslo via Tønsberg, Kristiansand and Farsund to Stavanger, with a daily round trip on a de Havilland Heron.

[29] KLM introduced the Vickers Viscount on the Kjevik route in 1957 and three years later started using the Lockheed L-188 Electra.

[23] Kristiansand was one of six test airports which received a British doppler microwave landing system in 1977.

[35] Two years later they received permission to fly to Bremen Airport,[36] but ultimately shut down on 21 November 1991.

[25] SAS commenced domestic services from Kjevik on 8 October 1998 when Oslo Airport, Gardermoen opened.

This waived the need for landing slots which had limited capacity at Fornebu, allowing for free competition on the route.

[44] KLM returned to Kristiansand on 28 March 1999, introducing flights to Amsterdam using a Fokker 50 three times per day.

[48] The same year SAS resumed its route to Copenhagen, matching Maersk Air with three daily flights.

[53] Norwegian returned to Kjevik in 2007 as a low-cost carrier with three weekly flights to London Stansted Airport.

[56] Avinor installed a 90 meters (300 ft) long section of engineered materials arrestor system at the end of each runway in 2012.

Kjevik is the only airport in Norway with this system, as the proximity to vulnerable marine environment prohibits the creation of a conventional safety zone around the runways.

They flew to ten sun and city holiday destinations using an Embraer 190 operated by Denim Air.

[59] Wizz Air started a route to Gdańsk using an Airbus A320 in May 2013, mostly targeting the Polish expatriate community.

Kjevik has a category I instrument landing system in both directions, both which are equipped with precision approach path indicator.

[67] Kjevik has significantly lower traffic than other airports in Norway covering similarly sized populations.