The airport was founded in 1952 as "Jan Smuts Airport", two years after his death, near the town of Kempton Park on the East Rand. It displaced the "Palmietfontein International Airport", which had handled European flights since 1945.
It was used as a test airport for the Concorde during the 1970s, to determine how the aircraft would perform while taking off and landing at high altitude.[8] During the 1980s, many countries stopped trading with South Africa because of the United Nation sanctionsimposed against South Africa in the struggle against apartheid, and many international airlines had to stop flying to the airport. These sanctions also resulted in South African Airways being refused rights to fly over most African countries, and in addition to this the risk of flying over some African countries was emphasised by the shooting down of two passenger aircraft over Rhodesia (Air Rhodesia Flight 825 and 827),[9] forcing them to fly around the "bulge" of Africa. This required specially-modified aircraft like overtook Cairo International Airport in 1996 as the busiest airport in Africa[10] and is the third-busiest airport in the Africa–Middle East region after Dubai International Airport and Doha International Airport. In fiscal year 2010, the airport handled 8.82 million departing passengers.[11]
On 26 November 2006, the airport became the first in Africa to host the Airbus A380.[12] The aircraft landed in Johannesburg on its way to Sydney via the South Pole on a test flight.
the Boeing 747-SP. Following the ending of apartheid, the airport's name, and that of other international airports in South Africa, were changed and these restrictions were lifted.