Nashville Airport Guide: Music City’s Southwest Stronghold
Nashville Airport is one of the fastest growing fields in America, with four runways and a Southwest base. Read how BNA Vision transformed Music City's gateway.
By The Aviation Hub
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Nashville International Airport serves the capital of Tennessee and the fast growing region of Middle Tennessee around it. It opened in 1937 as Berry Field, which is why its code is BNA, and it has grown into one of the fastest growing airports in the United States. Nashville Airport handled around 25.7 million passengers in 2025, more than double its total of a decade earlier. Southwest Airlines carries more than half of them from a base that has expanded year after year.
Nashville Airport at a Glance
The codes are BNA and KBNA. The airport sits about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of downtown Nashville, between Interstate 40 and Murfreesboro Pike, at an elevation of 183 m (599 ft). It covers around 4,555 acres and operates four runways, three of them parallel. A single terminal, named after Robert C. H. Mathews Jr, feeds five concourses with 53 gates.
In 2025 Nashville Airport handled around 25.7 million passengers. Southwest holds about 57 per cent of the market and opened a crew base here in May 2024. Allegiant also bases aircraft at the field. The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority owns and operates it. Joint Base Berry Field, home of the 118th Wing of the Tennessee Air National Guard, shares the airfield. Parking rates and flight information are on the airport’s official website.
How Nashville’s Airport Came to Be
Nashville’s first airfields were Hampton Field and Blackwood Field, with early airlines using Sky Harbor Airport in Rutherford County. In the mid 1930s a citizens’ committee picked a 340 acre site along what is now Murfreesboro Pike, and the Works Progress Administration built it. Berry Field opened in June 1937, named after Colonel Harry S. Berry, the WPA administrator for Tennessee.
The Army Air Forces took over during the Second World War and the airfield grew considerably. A new terminal opened in 1961 and the present terminal followed in 1987. The airport was renamed Nashville International Airport in 1988, keeping Berry Field as a second name that survives on the military side.
American Airlines ran a hub at Nashville from 1986 to 1995, peaking in 1993 with 265 daily departures to 79 cities. The early 1990s recession and weak local demand killed it, and American pulled out. Southwest picked up the pieces and has dominated ever since. The BNA Vision programme, launched in 2016, rebuilt the terminal, added an international arrivals facility and a hotel, and was largely complete by 2023.
Runways at Nashville Airport
Nashville Airport has four runways. The longest is 13/31, a concrete runway of 3,362 m (11,030 ft), which crosses the airfield from northwest to southeast. The three parallel runways run roughly north to south. Runway 02C/20C and runway 02R/20L are both concrete and both 2,439 m (8,001 ft) long. Runway 02L/20R is concrete and slightly shorter at 2,348 m (7,704 ft). All four are 46 m wide.
The parallel layout gives controllers plenty of flexibility during busy periods. The crossing runway 13/31 is used in strong westerly or southeasterly winds and for the heaviest departures, including the transatlantic British Airways flight to London Heathrow. Southerly operations on the 20 runways are common in the summer, bringing arrivals in over the suburbs of Donelson.
The airfield has seen a few incidents. A Navy F-14 crashed after take off in 1996, killing the pilot and four people on the ground. In 2015 a Southwest Boeing 737 suffered a nose gear collapse after landing and slid into a ditch, with all 138 on board evacuated safely.
Terminals and Airlines
The terminal is a single building with a long check in hall and a central security plaza that was rebuilt under BNA Vision. Concourses A, B, C and D fan out airside, with a satellite concourse housing gates C4 to C11 reached through a connector. Concourse T handles international arrivals that have not been precleared, and it links to the new international arrivals facility.
Southwest is everywhere, with Boeing 737-700, 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 aircraft on dozens of routes. American, Delta and United all operate heavy spoke services to their hubs. Allegiant, Frontier, Avelo and Sun Country add to the low cost mix, and Alaska links the Pacific Northwest. British Airways flies the Boeing 787 to London Heathrow, Air Canada, WestJet and Porter serve Canada, and Aer Lingus and Icelandair fly to Dublin and Reykjavik. The airport has grown from a regional field to a genuine international gateway in a decade.
Routes and Destinations
Nashville Airport serves around 100 domestic destinations, which is remarkable for a city of its size. Atlanta was the busiest route in the year to May 2026 with about 518,000 passengers, closely followed by Denver with about 514,000 and Dallas Fort Worth with about 451,000. Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, Los Angeles and New York are also busy. Southwest’s network from here reaches both coasts with no need to connect.
London Heathrow is the busiest international route with around 164,000 passengers a year, and Toronto follows with about 148,000. Cancun is the leading leisure destination with around 86,000. Summer brings a surge of tourists for the city’s music scene, and the autumn American football season fills flights at weekends. Cargo is modest, though FedEx and Amazon Air both run freighters through the field.
Getting to and from Nashville Airport
Nashville has no rail link to the airport and the city’s transport is built around the car. The cheapest option is the WeGo Route 18 bus, which runs between the terminal and downtown for a couple of dollars and takes around 30 to 40 minutes. It is reliable but infrequent in the evenings.
Interstate 40 passes the northern edge of the airfield with a direct exit onto the terminal road, and the Donelson Pike exit offers a second route. Driving downtown takes 15 to 20 minutes outside the rush hours, which can double it. Taxis and ride hailing pick up from the Ground Transportation Center on level one of Terminal Garage 2. A ride to downtown costs around USD 30 to 35 (about £23 to £27).
Parking is extensive, with two large terminal garages, economy lots and a cell phone waiting area. A proposed passenger rail line between Nashville and Atlanta includes an airport stop, and light rail to downtown has been discussed for years, but neither has funding.
Spotting and Photography
Nashville is a friendly airport for spotters. The terminal has large windows along the concourses, with views across the ramp and the parallel runways. Southwest’s 737s and the daily British Airways 787 provide the main interest, along with the Army National Guard’s UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters at Joint Base Berry Field.
Outside the fence, the roads around the southern end of the parallel runways near Murfreesboro Pike give views of arrivals during northerly operations. The approach to runway 31 from the southeast crosses open ground that spotters can reach from Donelson Pike. Morning light favours the eastern side of the field and afternoon light the west. Airport police are used to spotters but will check on anyone parked beside the fence for long periods, so stay on public roads and be polite.
What Comes Next
Growth has not stopped. The New Horizon programme, running alongside BNA Vision, extends the concourses, replaces the baggage system and widens the terminal roadway, with completion expected in 2028. The satellite concourse added gates for Southwest, and airlines such as Avelo keep adding routes, even as JetBlue ends its Nashville service in late October 2026.
In September 2026 the airport authority approved a plan to rename the airport after Dolly Parton, which required a change to a policy that normally applies only to people who have died. Whatever the name, the verdict is that Nashville Airport is one of the great growth stories of American aviation and shows no sign of slowing. Compare it with other fast growing fields on the Airports of the World map.
Continue to follow The Aviation Hub for more analysis and insight.
Advertise with us Your brand, in front of an aviation audience Home page and in-article placements, sold directly, one advertiser per slot. From £250 a year. See the rates
