By the 1980s, this occasional service led the local authorities to recognize the needs of the people living in Niš as well as Southern and Eastern Serbia and took into account the economic development of the city.

[6] The Breakup of Yugoslavia at the beginning of the 1990s brought a sharp decrease in travelling to the Adriatic Sea, Ljubljana and Zagreb, once the busiest routes from Niš.

This was followed by United Nations sanctions imposed on Serbia and Montenegro which included a ban on international air travel.

In 2010, Wind Jet connected the airport with Forlì, Italy while Montenegro Airlines linked it with Podgorica on a daily basis.

[6] The expansion in traffic began in 2015 when low-cost airline Wizz Air launched flights to Basel and Malmö.

Shortly after the launch of these flights Niš experienced triple-digit growth in passenger traffic, exceeding the previous record figure.

In December 2016, Swiss got direct competition when Germania Flug announced flights to Zürich, starting June 2017 operated by the Airbus 319.

[8] As of 2019, plans existed for Niš Constantine the Great Airport to be linked to twelve more European cities, after Government of Serbia publish document about lines of public interests (PSO).

Twelve destinations of public interest are Frankfurt, Rome, Hannover, Ljubljana, Bologna, Budapest, Göteborg, Friedrichshafen, Karlsruhe, Salzburg, Nuremberg, Tivat.

[11] In 2023, it was announced that SMATSA (Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency) plans to start construction in 2024 of a new control tower and an instrument landing system (ILS), which provides guidance to aircraft approaching and landing on a runway during low ceilings or reduced visibility due to fog, rain or snow.

[12] The new terminal building was inaugurated in July of 2024[13] The Sergeant-pilot Mihajlo Petrović Air Base (Serbian: Војни аеродром наредник-пилот Михајло Петровић, romanized: Vojni aerodrom pukovnik-pilot Mihajlo Petrović), commonly known as Niš Air Base (Serbian: Војни аеродром Ниш, romanized: Vojni aerodrom Niš) is located at the airport.

Niš Constantin the Great Airport has parking in front of the terminal building that works 24 hours every day.