The airfield located at Gannavaram served as an army base during the World War II, after which it was converted into a civilian airport. Air Deccan introduced a daily service between Hyderabad and Vijayawada in September 2003. Until 2011, the airport had only four flights a day operated by Kingfisher Airlines. In 2011, flag carrier Air India and private airlines Spicejet and Jet Airways introduced direct flights to the airport, but the latter terminated its service. Air Costa, a regional airline started operations in October 2013, with Vijayawada as its operational hub, which later suspended services.