By the end of July 1950, UN forces had been pushed back into the Pusan Perimeter, which contained three airfields all in poor condition.

Engineers urgently improved the former Japanese military airfield at K-9 to allow heavy transport aircraft such as C-54s to land there.

[2] On 23 May 1951 the 452d Bombardment Wing operating the Douglas A-26 Invader was deployed to K-9.

K-9 was transferred to the South Korean military in 1956 and remained in use until the early 1990s.

In August 1976 the airport was moved to its current location in Gimhae.