The airport is located 15 km (9.3 mi) southwest of the capital city of Pristina.

The airport was originally built as Slatina Air Base, containing the second-largest military underground hangar complex in Yugoslavia.

A contingent of 200[4] Russian troops deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, crossed over into Kosovo and captured the airport in Pristina.

[5] On 12 November 2008, Pristina International Airport received for the first time in its history the annual one-millionth passenger (excluding military).

[citation needed] In April 2011 operation was handed to Limak Kosovo International Airport J.S.C.

under a design-build-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) 20-year concession agreement with the Turkish-French consortium Limak and Aeoroports de Lyon.