A 340-acre (1.4 km2) plot along Dixie Parkway (now Murfreesboro Pike) composed of four farms was selected, and construction began in 1936 as one of the first major Works Progress Administration projects in the area.

It opened in June 1937 with much fanfare, including parades, an air show, and an aerial bombardment display by the 105th Aero Squadron, which was based at the field.

The new airport had three asphalt runways, a three-story passenger terminal, a control tower, two hangars and a beacon, and was built at a cost of $1.2 million.

At the end of the war, the airport was returned to the control of the city, with a number of facilities remaining for support of the tenant unit of the Tennessee National Guard.

For the first time, more than half a million people passed through the airport when the six airlines that served Nashville carried 532,790 passengers.

In 1973, the newly created Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) finalized a plan for the long-term growth of the airport; the plan included a new terminal and a new parallel runway across Donelson Pike to increase capacity by reducing time between takeoffs and landings.

[11] In the early 1980s, the MNAA commissioned Robert Lamb Hart, in association with the firm of Gresham, Smith and Partners, to design a modern terminal; construction began on the opposite side of the existing two crossing runways in 1984 and was completed in 1987.

[15][16] The American hub was touted as a selling point in bringing companies such as Nissan and Saturn Corporation to the Nashville area.

[17] American's service peaked in 1993 with 265 daily departures to 79 cities, after which flights were gradually scaled back until the hub closed in 1995.

In the aftermath of the hub closure, Southwest Airlines gradually filled the void by subleasing American's gates and seizing a majority of the Nashville market.

[18][19] In 2002, Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services (EAMS) selected Nashville as the location for its Regional Airline Support Facility, which was built on the site of the demolished 1961 terminal building.

Phase one of the project involved updating and expanding food and vending services, improving flight information systems, and construction of a new consolidated security checkpoint for all terminals.

[11] In addition to passenger amenities in the terminal and parking areas, the renovations included improvements to the airport's infrastructure.

BNA's 91 acres (0.37 km2) of tarmac were also rehabilitated during this project after being funded entirely by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allotments.

[34] For some time after the announcement, the airport's online store sold doormats made of unused tiles of the old carpet.

[34] Berry Field Air National Guard Base (ANGB) was located on the premises of Nashville International Airport.

Berry Field faced the removal of its flying mission with the BRAC 2005 recommendation to realign its assets to other units.