Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF) opened on September 25, 1926, as Buffalo Municipal Airport, carved from farmland in Cheektowaga, New York by civic leaders who believed aviation was inseparable from industrial growth. It is one of the oldest public airports in the United States. Passenger and airmail service began in December 1927, initially limited to a single route between Buffalo and Cleveland. Buffalo's position on the corridor from New York City westward to Cleveland and Chicago drove early traffic growth, as did the nearby presence of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, which tied the region's manufacturing identity directly to aviation.

Ownership passed from the City of Buffalo to the Niagara Frontier Port Authority in 1956, and the facility was renamed Greater Buffalo International Airport in 1959. The NFTA assumed operational control in 1967. A WPA-built Art Deco terminal had replaced the original structure in 1939; by 1991, even that building had outlived its usefulness. Construction on a replacement began in 1995, and the new $56 million terminal opened November 3, 1997, with 15 gates. Its architect, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, drew on 2 regional influences: the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright and the primacy of flight to western New York. The resulting crystalline structure, with its arching metal roof, was designed to resemble an aircraft when viewed from above.

Today BUF is the third-busiest airport in New York State and the busiest outside the New York City metropolitan area. It serves up to 100 nonstop flights per day to 31 destinations, operated by carriers including American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, United, Frontier, and Sun Country. The airport is a focus city for both Southwest and JetBlue, and its cross-border catchment, drawing travelers from southern Ontario as well as western New York, gives it a geographic footprint considerably larger than its passenger count alone might suggest.