Soekarno-Hatta International Airport opened on May 1, 1985, replacing the overcrowded Kemayoran Airport for domestic services and eventually absorbing international operations from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport as well. Construction began in December 1980 following a planning process that stretched back to the 1970s, when it became clear Jakarta needed an entirely new facility. The airport's IATA code, CGK, derives from Cengkareng, the district in Tangerang, Banten, where it sits roughly 20 kilometers northwest of central Jakarta.

Terminals 1 and 2 were designed by French architect Paul Andreu, who also designed Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Rather than a purely modernist structure, the design incorporated local Javanese architectural elements and tropical gardens between boarding pavilions, a choice that earned the airport the 1995 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Terminal 3, opened domestically in August 2016 and for international flights in May 2017, takes a different direction: a contemporary steel-and-glass design with an eco-friendly brief. The airport has 3 runways aligned northeast-southwest; the third and shortest was added in August 2019. An automated Skytrain links the terminals.

CGK is the main hub of Indonesian aviation. Garuda Indonesia, the national flag carrier, bases all operations there, alongside Lion Air, Citilink, and Batik Air. In 2025, the airport handled approximately 54.95 million passengers, ranking it among the top airports in Southeast Asia. Indonesia's geography, more than 17,000 islands spread across an area wider than the continental United States, makes CGK the central node of a country where air travel is not a luxury but a logistical necessity.