The airport has flights to international destinations such as New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rome, Istanbul, Dubai, Sydney, Bali, Bangkok, Moscow, Osaka, Seoul, and Singapore.

It initially operated domestic flights but later in 2000, the CAA re-designated it as an international airport.

The first international flight from and to Wuhan only started on Halloween 1992, when Wuhan-Vientiane route was opened.

Wangjiadun Airport still opened by that time, but mainly for military operations, then closed and demolished in 2007.

Wuhan opened up to intercontinental flights when Air France began service from Paris on 11 April 2012,[7] and two years later opened up to the United States non-stop when China Southern Airlines announced, in September 2014, a daily non-stop flight to San Francisco, originating from Guangzhou, operating with a Boeing 787 to begin 16 December 2014.

It has a floor area of 121,200 square meters and a designed capacity to handle 13 million passengers and 320,000 tons of cargo a year.

The project was completed on 15 April 2008, at a total cost of 3.37 billion yuan (421.5 million US dollars).

[12] Due to its compact size and the growing number of international flights, there were complaints that Terminal 1 was "too crowded".

In 2013, the average departure traffic was 880 per hour during the peak season, which was far greater than its designed maximum capacity of 550.

A new runway, new control tower, and a transportation hub connecting the airport to the city with an intercity railway and a metro line have been built and opened along with the new terminal.

[78] The extension of Line 2 of Wuhan Metro to Tianhe International Airport station opened on 28 December 2016.