All airline service in Plattsburgh goes through the airport, which has expanded its terminal building to accommodate more passengers and provide more gates for aircraft.

The airport was closed to air traffic from April 13, 2021, to approximately June 22, 2021, due to the middle section of the runway being repaved.

[9] At the time, the United States Air Force still owned the runway, which made converting it into a civilian airport more difficult.

[13] In September 2003, the Federal Aviation Administration awarded Plattsburgh International Airport $624,200 of funding to build a passenger terminal.

[16] In 2004, Precision Jet nearly selected to operate the new airport,[17] but the county decided not to approve the contract because of a lack of detail in the business plan, concerns about whether the Federal Aviation Administration would approve the proposed terminal, questions about whether it was legal to give the company exclusive development rights, and concerns that delegating all control over decisions could negatively impact the county's long-term economic future.

[26][27][28][29] The airport has significant multi-modal capabilities, including its own interchange on the Interstate Highway System (Exit 36 of I-87), a direct rail spur from the main Canadian Pacific Railway line between Montreal and New York City, and direct rail and highway access to the Port of Montreal.

[29] For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2018, the airport had 12,781 aircraft operations, an average of 35 per day: 55% general aviation, 23% air taxi, 21% scheduled commercial, and 2% military.

[39] In response to their tremendous success within the region, Allegiant began non-stop service to Las Vegas and Punta Gorda.

The charter airline already had a successful service to Myrtle Beach from Niagara Falls, which has drawn many passengers from Ontario just as Plattsburgh is now doing from Quebec.

On April 29, 2011, the airline announced it would offer two non-stop flights per week, departing and returning on Wednesdays and Saturdays, to Lakeland Linder International Airport beginning November 10, 2011 using Boeing 737-400 aircraft.

[42] The airport was served by Colgan Air until June 14, 2012, offering up to three flights daily to Boston on a variety of turboprop regional airliners.

After Colgan Air went defunct, the relatively unknown Alaska-based airline PenAir was chosen as its replacement when the airline decided to serve destinations in the northeast U.S. PenAir serves Plattsburgh similarly with two to three daily flights to Boston Logan International Airport, exclusively using Saab 340 aircraft.

[43] PenAir was selected as Colgan's replacement[44] and offered to two daily flights to Boston, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

The aircraft was housed in the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base Auxiliary hangar on the south side of the airports tarmac.

It made regular air show appearances throughout the northeast U.S. for the following years, flying out of both Plattsburgh and Morrisonville, before the aircraft was purchased by Basler Turbo Conversions on March 8, 2013; it is currently based at BTC headquarters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at Wittman Regional Airport.