John Glenn Columbus International Airport opened on July 8, 1929, as Columbus Municipal Hangar, built in just 88 days on a site selected by Charles Lindbergh. From its first morning, the airport served as a key stop on Transcontinental Air Transport's pioneering air-rail route linking New York to Los Angeles, with Amelia Earhart among the 19 passengers on the inaugural flight. That origin gave Columbus a front-row seat at the birth of American commercial aviation. The airport's IATA code, CMH, is itself a historical artifact: an abbreviation of that original name.

Located roughly 6 miles east of downtown Columbus in Franklin County, the airport is the primary international gateway for central Ohio. A new terminal opened in September 1958 to handle surging postwar demand, and jet airline service arrived in 1964. A $138 million runway project completed in 2013 repositioned the south runway far enough from the north runway to allow simultaneous takeoffs and landings, meaningfully increasing throughput. The airport covers 2,265 acres and operates 2 runways, one 8,000 feet long and one 10,113 feet, alongside a single terminal with 3 concourses and 29 gates.

The airport was renamed in 2016 to honor Ohio astronaut and four-term U.S. senator John Glenn. Airlines serving CMH today include American, Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska, Air Canada, Frontier, Breeze, JetBlue, and Sun Country, connecting the Columbus metro to more than 50 nonstop destinations. In 2025, the airport handled more than 9 million passengers. Southwest operates CMH as a focus city, and the airport's compact, walkable layout has long been a differentiator: efficient enough to feel navigable, busy enough to matter.