[5] The airport was built largely with NATO funding as one of several bases to be used by the United States Air Force in case of war.

The main entry road from European route E18 traverses the birch tree forests of Fokserød Nature Preserve.

[6] Following the end of the Second World War and Norway's subsequent membership in NATO, it became strategically important to build several new air stations in the country.

This was based on a United States analysis from 1951, carried out by General Robert K. Taylor, which intended to station three wings, each of 75 aircraft, in Denmark and Norway.

On 24 November, the United States proposed converting Tønsberg Airport, Jarlsberg into an air force station.

The issue was discussed by Parliament on 4 March 1952 along with several other proposals to build air stations or expand airports to meet NATO's needs, namely Gardermoen, Jarlsberg, Lista, Ørland, Bardufoss and Rygge.

In May 1952, Prime Minister Oscar Torp informed United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower that he intended to try to convince Parliament to change the Norwegian base policies to allow permanent stationing of foreign troops.

An air station for Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighter jets would require a 3,000-meter (9,800 ft) runway, and due to surrounding hills this was not possible at Jarlsberg.

However, the military did note that Jarlsberg would be easier to defend, but that the defensibility was correlated to the rugged terrain that made expansion difficult.

At the time, Jarlsberg was still being used for scheduled services to Vestfold, and the plans to open Torp as a civilian airport met political resistance from Tønsberg.

The civilian sector would cost NOK 900,000, including a terminal building, a control tower, small maintenance facilities and a tarmac.

The first scheduled flight was a Braathens SAFE Fokker F27 on 13 October, a route that flew daily from Oslo along the South Coast to Stavanger.

[13] Local patriots had expected Braathens SAFE to relocate their route from Jarlsberg to Torp after the opening of the airport, but this was not carried out.

The service was terminated after a single season due to Scandinavian Airlines taking over the route, and removing Sandefjord from the schedule.

[15] The arsenal caused massive local protests, and the municipal council made a declaration where it supported the concerns raised about the danger of an explosion.

The company had been established in 1952, and started flights from Sandefjord to serve commuters and business travelers to Western Norway and the oil industry.

It was a 3,000-square-meter (32,000 sq ft) pointed building that was planned to have the largest possible surface facing the tarmac—to allow the highest possible number of aircraft to park.

The Irish airline Ryanair wanted to use this to establish several routes from London Stansted Airport, including Oslo.

Ryanair and Torp had meetings to discuss the matter, but the airport instead wanted SAS and Braathens SAFE to establish routes.

To create pressure against Ryanair in the negotiations, the airport operator contacted EasyJet, who also considered flying from London to Torp.

[46] The airport grew to 684,431 passengers in 1999 and produced a profit of NOK 23.4 started a restaurant in the terminal building in 1991, which allowed them to provide catering to the airlines.

[52] Norwegian leisure airline ConTigo started charter flights using Boeing 727 on 3 November 1996, but terminated services after 22 December.

Sun Air of Scandinavia, a franchise of British Airways, started flights from Torp to Billund Airport on 1 November 1999, but this was terminated in March 2000.

Swedish low-cost airline Goodjet started flights from Torp to Beauvais–Tillé Airport near Paris on 15 July 2002 using Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

However, as the construction of a new Vestfold Line was put on hold, an intermediate solution was found to reopen Råstad Station, and offer a shuttle bus to the airport.

On 16 May 2007, Vestfold County Municipality announced that they would forward the investment costs of NOK 7 million for the new station, with a payback from the National Rail Administration by 2012.

[61] On 10 January 2024, after almost 25 years of operations at the airport, the leadership of KLM announced that they would terminate the airlines' route to Amsterdam, effective from 31 March 2024.

[62] According to KLM, the decision was made due to the coming slot restrictions at Schiphol, as well as that the ticket sales hadn't reached a satisfactory level as it had before the COVID-19 pandemic.

[76] Torp-Ekspressen is a coach service operated by Unibuss Ekspress to Oslo connecting with all Ryanair's and Wizz Air's flights.

[79] The Vy express service Sørlandsekspressen operates from a halt on the E18 (not from the airport terminal) to several cities along the South Coast to Kristiansand.