Kochi Airport was constructed as an airbase for the former imperial navy in 1944, taken up after the war and returned in 1952, and then was reopened as a private airport. Construction was planned thereafter in the year 1957, and was designated as the Type 2 airport in 1958. The service of the 1,200 m runway was started in 1960. In the year 1963, thereafter, the service of the 1,500 m runway was started. It was necessary, however, to increase the size of aircraft in service to handle the number of passengers, and the construction of airport for jet planes was started from 1979. The service of the 2,000 m runway was started in December 1983, and then the full-scale services were started in February 1986. The number of passengers increased, thereafter, and it was feared that the transportation capacity would be short if no action was taken.
To deal with the increase of air transportation demands in the future, therefore, a project of extending the runway by 500 m was started from 1994, and completed in 2003.
The airport is now called “Kochi Ryoma Airport” which was named after a historic person for the first time in Japan.