Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport , formerly Birmingham Municipal Airport and later Birmingham International Airport, is a civil-military airport serving Birmingham, Alabama. The airport also provides scheduled airline service for the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa metropolitan areas. It is located in Jefferson County, five miles northeast of Downtown Birmingham, near the interchange of Interstates 20 and 59.
BHM served 3,243,023 passengers in 2024, and is the largest and busiest airport in the state of Alabama by passenger volume. The airfield can handle all aircraft types. The main runway is long.. Federal Aviation Administration. The secondary runway is long. A CategoryII ILS allows operations in visibility as low as a quarter-mile. The airport was renamed in July 2008 after Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, founding president of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and a leader of the Birmingham campaign during the civil rights movement.
The airport carries the designation of an international airport and has a staffed U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility on site. There have been scheduled seasonal international flights to the Bahamas, Canada, and Mexico in the past, but as of March 2020, there are no scheduled international flights. However, air ambulance operator AirMed International regularly operates to and from destinations throughout the world; corporate aircraft routinely depart and arrive from foreign destinations, as well. The Southern Museum of Flight currently operates on Airport Authority property, to the east side of the north–south runway. There are plans for it to relocate to a new site near the Barber Motorsports Park.
History Commercial air service to Birmingham began in 1928 by St. Tammany and Gulf Coast Airways, at Roberts Field on the west side of Birmingham on a route from Atlanta, Georgia to New Orleans, Louisiana.Dodd, Don "Birmingham Aviation: From Fairgrounds Air Shows to the Southern Museum of Flight", Alabama Review, January 2004. Delta Air Service began service to Birmingham in late 1929 with six seat Travel Air airplanes along a route from Love Field in Dallas, Texas to Birmingham. When American Airways (now American Airlines) began their Atlanta, Georgia to Fort Worth, Texas route, Birmingham was not included because their Ford Tri-Motors could not land at Roberts Field. Thus, Birmingham began construction of what is now Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport.
The airport opened on May 31, 1931, with a two-story, white, Georgian style terminal and a single east–west runway. The terminal was just east of the later 1962 and 1971 terminal complexes. No remains of the 1931 terminal or landscaping are visible. With the addition of American Airlines in 1931 and Eastern Airlines in 1934, air traffic increased enough to warrant a second runway.
World War II saw the airport leased to the United States Army Air Forces for $1 a year to support national defense. Birmingham Army Airfield was a section assigned to the Third Air Force as a fighter base, operated by the 310th Army Air Force Base Unit. The Army Air Forces considerably improved the airport with land acquisitions, paving of additional taxiways, and construction of a control tower and an aircraft modification center south of the terminal, now operated by Stewart Industries for aircraft disassembly and disposal.
Around the 1940s, Birmingham was considered as a potential air transportation hub for the Deep South. However, Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines and the United States Postal Service each opted to use Atlanta for this purpose instead. One factor was an aviation fuel tax imposed by the City of Birmingham in the 1940s; other factors included Birmingham's location in the Central Time Zone, which placed it at a disadvantage in accommodating traffic between East Coast points, and a relatively strong sales and marketing campaign by Atlanta under Mayor William Hartsfield.
After the airport returned to city control in August 1948 Southern Airways began service. In March 1951 four runways were in use, Former Runways 5/23 (now 6/24) and 18/36, and runways at about 45/225 degrees north of Runway 6/24 and 85/265 degrees mostly south of Runway 6/24. Runway lengths were about to . The runway at 45/225 degrees is now largely removed, though a paved portion remains crossing taxiway F near the Alabama Air National Guard facilities, used for airport equipment and helicopter landing/parking. The runway at 85/265 is also mostly removed, with remaining segments making up taxiway A5 and a portion of taxiway F east of Runway 18/36.Federal Aviation Administration Airport Diagram, Birmingham International (BHM), SE-4, June 5, 2008
By 1959, Runway 5/23 was and service was started to Birmingham by Capital Airlines with Vickers Viscounts. The first scheduled jets were Delta Convair 880s in October 1961, flying ATL-BHM-MSY-LAX and back. Birmingham then had nonstops to Newark and Washington, DC, but no other nonstops beyond Charlotte, Memphis and New Orleans, and no nonstops to Florida. In the late 1960s Douglas DC-8, Douglas DC-9, Convair 880 and Boeing 727s were all scheduled to BHM.
During the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, pilots and crews from the Alabama Air National Guard's 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Birmingham were selected to train Cuban exile fliers in Nicaragua to fly the Douglas B-26 Invader in the close air support role. Although the 117th was flying the RF-84F Thunderflash, it had only recently retired its RB-26C Invaders, the last squadron in the Air Force to do so; thus the 117th was seen as the logical choice for the CIA's secret mission. Seven of the volunteer aviators participated in combat operations during the final day of the invasion, on August 19, 1961. Birmingham natives Leo Baker, Wade Gray, Riley Shamburger, and Thomas "Pete" Ray were all killed when their (two) aircraft were shot down. While American involvement had been suspected since before the invasion even began, Ray's frozen body was kept as concrete proof of U.S. support.
Continued growth in passenger traffic by 1962 resulted in the construction of a second passenger terminal and a new air traffic control tower, built west of the original 1931 terminal. This was dedicated on February 11, 1962, as the Birmingham Air Terminal. Charles H. McCauley Associates was the supervising architect and Radar & Associates was the designing architect.Birmingham Air Terminal dedication plaque; 1973 terminal 2nd Floor It consisted of a single story building of repeated bays with steeply pitched roofs, which flanked a wider, higher center bay at the south end of the building for ticketing. A long, flat roofed northern section comprised the ground-level aircraft gates. The air traffic control tower, completed in 1962 and located immediately southwest of the terminal, was tall. The 1962 control tower was demolished in 2004 after being replaced by the 2001 air traffic control tower. This terminal was demolished to make way for the 2011 terminal expansion; the 1962 terminal being located in the area now covered by the aircraft apron for Gate A1.
In 1973 a semi-circular terminal was completed west of the 1962 terminal and air traffic control tower. It had 15 aircraft gates and a 1,600 space parking deck. Allegheny Airlines (later US Airways) began service from Birmingham to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the late 1970s. Deregulation of the airline industry saw airlines such as Comair, Florida Express, People Express, Air New Orleans, L'Express Airlines, and Southwest Airlines enter the Birmingham market. The city unsuccessfully lobbied Piedmont Airlines to establish a Birmingham hub in the 1980s; American Airlines considered Birmingham as the site for a new north–south hub around the same time, but opted to establish hubs in Nashville and Raleigh/Durham instead.
The original 1931 terminal was finally demolished between 1970 and 1992.Aerial photo geography.ua.eduAerial photo geography.ua.edu With the introduction of flights to Canada and Mexico, the official name of the airport was changed to Birmingham International Airport on October 20, 1993. Also in 1993, the airport marked the completion of a $50.4m terminal renovation.
In the early 1990s Runway 18/36 was extended to 7,100 feet, allowing use by airline jets. By the early 2000s, Birmingham had completed improvements to the air cargo areas, including a new facility at the far west end of runway 6-24 which houses FedEx and United Parcel Service. A new FAA air traffic control tower located south of the terminal parking deck and measuring in height entered service in the summer of 2001. The 1962 blue and white air traffic control tower was demolished in 2004. In 2006 Birmingham International Airport celebrated its 75th year. In July 2007 an eastward extension to Runway 6/24 was completed. Now in length, Runway 6/24 allows a fully loaded Boeing 747 to land or take off.
On June 23, 2008, Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford announced his proposal to rename the airport as the Fred L. Shuttlesworth International Airport, in honor of civil rights activist Fred Shuttlesworth. On July 16, 2008, Mayor Langford and the Birmingham Airport Authority voted to change the name of the airport from the Birmingham International Airport to the Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport after the former civil rights activist. The name change cost about $300,000. The FAA approved the name change and signage of the airport took place on April 3, 2009.
In 2011, The Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport broke ground on a comprehensive Terminal Modernization Project. This project was completed in phases over three years, retaining with extensive renovations the 1973 landside terminal, demolishing the 1962 terminal and 1973 airside concourses and gates (portions of the 1973 Concourse C structure were reused), and constructing all new airside facilities with 19 gates equipped with jetways. Completed in 2014, the project provided a beautiful new terminal that nearly doubled the airport's footprint, but with minimal impact on the community and environment.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Delta Air Lines stored several of their widebody jets as well as many narrow body jets at BHM during the downturn in global travel demand.
Facilities Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport covers 2,170 acres (878 ha) at an elevation of 650 feet (198 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt runways: 6/24 is 12,007 by 150 feet (3,660 x 46 m) and 18/36 is 7,099 by 150 feet (2,164 x 46 m). FAA data effective January 22, 2026.
Atlantic Aviation operates two general aviation fixed-base operator facilities, and there are numerous corporate hangars north of Runway 6/24 and east of Runway 18/36. AirMed International, a fixed-wing air ambulance company, operates its main hub from here. There is a large, full service aircraft modification and maintenance facility on the south side of the airport. It was originally built during World War II, but was subsequently expanded. While little work is now performed at the complex, the facility sits on approximately 180 acres of land and has 1.7 million square feet under its roof. It has 10 aircraft pull-through bays with space under the roof for 54 737-size aircraft.
Commercial aircraft