The airport was constructed in 1927, opening to domestic and international air traffic on 22 April 1931, although regular commercial operations began two years later.

A small terminal was constructed with a capacity for 30,000 passengers a year, in addition to several hangars and the building of the Avión Club.

Originally, the flight field was a large circle bordered in white with the name of Madrid in its interior, unpaved, consisting of land covered with natural grass.

In the 1950s, the airport supported over half a million passengers, increasing to five runways and scheduled flights to New York City began.

By the 1970s, large jets were landing at Barajas, and the growth of traffic mainly as a result of tourism exceeded forecasts.

In the 1970s, with the boom in tourism and the arrival of the Boeing 747, the airport reached 4 million passengers and began the construction of the international terminal (current T1).

In 1998, it inaugurated a new control tower, 71 m tall and then in 1999 the new South Dock opened, which implies an expansion of the international terminal.

In November 1998, the new runway 18R-36L started operations (replacing the previous 18–36), 4,400 m long, one of the largest in Europe under expansion plans called Major Barajas.

In 2000, it began the construction of new terminals T4 and its satellite, T4S, designed by architects Antonio Lamela, Richard Rogers and Luis Vidal.

This is managed through careful use of illumination, with glass panes instead of walls and numerous skylights which allow natural light into the structure.

These runways were officially inaugurated on 5 February 2006 (together with the terminals), but had already been used on several occasions beforehand to test flight and air traffic manoeuvres.

[17] In December 2010, the Spanish government announced plans to tender Madrid–Barajas airport to companies in the private sector for a period of up to 40 years.

Since 2024, the Estonian ride-hailing company Bolt has operated exclusive pickup areas at the airport, offering flat-rate fares for rides into the city.

[190] In June 2011 a decision was made to equip this link with dual gauge which will allow AVE high-speed trains to reach the airport station.

[193] EMT (Madrid Municipal Transport Company) runs regular public bus services between the airport and Madrid (Avenida de América station): bus 200 runs as a complete line – dropping passengers at departures of terminals 1, 2 and 4 before collecting passengers in the reverse order at arrivals.

The EMT public night bus service N4 (nicknamed "Buho", Owl) also services from Madrid downtown (Plaza Cibeles) to Barajas (Plaza de los Hermanos Falcó y Alvarez de Toledo, 400m from the airport through a passageway above the highway).

[194] CRTM (Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid) runs four bus services between the airport and nearby cities in the metropolitan area: From terminals T1 and T4 the bus company Avanzabus operates routes to Ávila, Castellón, Salamanca, Valencia and Zamora.

From terminal T4 the Alsa bus company runs services to the cities of Zaragoza, Barcelona, Valladolid, León, Murcia, Alicante, Gijón, Oviedo, Lugo, Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Burgos, Vitoria, San Sebastián, Santander, Bilbao, Logroño and Pamplona.

From terminal T1 the Socibus company runs services to the major cities in Andalusia: Huelva, Córdoba, Cadiz, Jerez and Seville.

[196] Deploying the CITYFLO 550 automatic train control technology, the system is the only mode of transportation for passengers between the two terminals, which are spaced two kilometres apart.