The airport was inaugurated in Benito Mussolini's presence in 1928, with the name "Littorio Airport" (the name was chosen by Mussolini himself). Until World War II it was the main civilian airport in Italy, and the base for the Italian national airline Ala Littoria.
Heavily damaged by bombardments during the war, the airport was reactivated with the current name in the first postwar years. But just a few years later the commercial activity was transferred to the Ciampino Airport. Since that moment the Rome Urbe Airport turned mostly into a facility for flying club activity, touristic flights and air taxi.