In 1938 a larger site was selected within the City of Townsville on the Town Common, adjacent to Ingham Road and the North Coast Railway line.

[citation needed] The Department of Defence was looking for military airfield sites in northern Australia at the time, and almost immediately Townsville Airport was planned for expansion as a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base for three fighter squadrons.

[citation needed] The plans were scaled back to one squadron, and RAAF Base Townsville was built alongside the civil airport in early 1940.

A year later the airfield was greatly expanded to take United States Army Air Corps bombers and transport aircraft reinforcing the Philippines.

[citation needed] Types operated were the Australian regional airliners such as the DC-3/4, Convair 240, DC-6, Viscounts, and F-27s, as well smaller charter aircraft such as Ansons.

[citation needed] During that period, TAA and Ansett – ANA gradually increased their jet services starting with DC-9s and then Boeing 727s.

[citation needed] In April 1980, Rupert Murdoch and Sir Peter Abeles, the new owners of Ansett, were petitioning the Federal Government for international flights to begin in some regional centres of Australia.

[citation needed] Destinations in Asia included Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong; Auckland, Port Moresby and Honolulu in the Pacific; and the North American cities of San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

[citation needed] The American flights reflected the significant tourism demand between the United States and Australia at the time.

[citation needed] The friendly rivalry between Townsville and Cairns with respect to hosting international flights was becoming more serious as the airlines started to rationalise services.

[citation needed] Qantas began to retire the aircraft type in use on the route to Sydney which resulted in a decrease in services to that city.

[citation needed] In August 2002, Qantas ceased the services to Singapore, which had been at times circuitously routed via southern airports such as Brisbane, due to lack of demand.

[citation needed] Also that year, Australian Airports Limited announced that Townsville domestic terminal would receive a State-of-the-art upgrade and the new redevelopment would open in October 2003.

[citation needed] A new international route operated by Strategic Airlines started twice weekly to Denpasar from 3 December 2010, however these services have since been terminated.

[citation needed] The flights began on 17 February 2012, providing a linkage between the two largest Defence communities in Northern Australia.

[citation needed] International services from Townsville recommenced on 2 September 2015, with Jetstar offering three return flights to Denpasar per week on A320 aircraft.

The centre opened in late 2007, with tenants BAE Systems and Worland Aviation starting operations in the new hangars (Stage 1 of the project) built just north of the Terminal.