The airport was built as a United States Army Air Forces base around 1941 and named Coolidge Airfield after Capt.

Hamilton Coolidge (1895–1918), a United States Army Air Service pilot killed in World War I.

Agreements were subsequently reached with the United Kingdom and, later, the Antigua government upon independence, for the establishment and maintenance of missile tracking facilities.

It was known as Coolidge International Airport until 1985 when it was named in honour of Sir Vere Cornwall Bird (1909–1999), the first prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.

[33] This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency Media related to V. C. Bird International Airport at Wikimedia Commons