Charlotte Douglas International Airport traces its origins to 1936, when Charlotte Municipal Airport opened as a civilian airfield funded in part by the Works Progress Administration. At the time, it was the largest single WPA project in North Carolina. The formal opening ceremony took place on May 17, 1937, with 3 runways, a hangar, and a single terminal building. Eastern Air Lines launched scheduled passenger service that same year, operating 2 daily flights.

The airport grew steadily through the postwar decades. In 1954 it was renamed Douglas Municipal Airport in honor of Mayor Ben Elbert Douglas Sr., who had overseen its construction, and a new 70,000-square-foot terminal opened the same year. The decision that defined CLT came in 1979, when Piedmont Airlines chose it as a hub city. A new terminal followed, and in 1982 the airport was renamed Charlotte Douglas International Airport, opening with 25 gates and Piedmont operating 86 daily flights from day one. Piedmont's acquisition by USAir in 1989, and USAir's eventual merger into American Airlines, brought CLT to its current status as American's second-largest hub globally, after Dallas/Fort Worth.

Geography is a central part of CLT's story. Located about 6 miles west of Uptown Charlotte in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, the airport operates 3 parallel north-south runways, with a fourth under construction and scheduled to open in fall 2027. American Airlines and its subsidiaries account for roughly 90% of traffic, connecting the airport to more than 180 nonstop destinations. In 2025, CLT handled 53.6 million passengers and ranked among the world's busiest airports for aircraft operations. The airport's single terminal and 5 concourses, all connected by walking, give it an operational compactness unusual for an airport of its scale. Its rocking chairs in the main lobby have become something of a regional trademark.