Tampa International Airport traces its origins to Drew Field, a municipal airfield dedicated in February 1928 on land six miles west of downtown Tampa. During World War II it served as a military installation, and commercial airline service began in 1946. Trans Canada Airlines became the first international carrier when it launched service in 1950, the same year the field was renamed Tampa International Airport. On August 17, 1952, the airport opened its first purpose-built commercial terminal, a two-story facility designed to meet the postwar surge in air travel. It was already overcrowded. Demand outpaced the building almost immediately, and within a decade the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority was planning a replacement.

That replacement opened on April 15, 1971, and it changed how airports were built. Designed by the firm Reynolds, Smith & Hills, the new terminal introduced the landside/airside hub-and-spoke concept: a central landside building handling check-in and baggage, connected by automated people movers to satellite airside concourses. It was the first airport in the world to use a fully automated people mover system of this kind, and the design has influenced airport planning globally ever since. The current terminal serves 4 airside concourses (A, C, E, and F), with Southwest Airlines as the leading carrier and American, Delta, and United also operating significant schedules.

TPA handled 24.5 million passengers in fiscal year 2025, ranking it 4th among Florida airports and 28th in the United States. It offers nonstop service to more than 100 destinations, with international connections to Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean operated by carriers including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Avianca. The airport sits within a region that holds a singular place in aviation history: on January 1, 1914, pilot Tony Jannus completed the world's first scheduled commercial airline flight, a 23-minute crossing of Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg to Tampa.