| 1942 |
Contra Costa County purchased over 400 acres of land to build an airport in Central County for $98,000.00 |
| 1943 |
The airport is being developed by the County when World War II necessitates that the United States Army commandeer the site. The Army adds an additional 100+ acres of land and spends $2 million on the construction of airport facilities. A training base is built to train pilots to fly the P-39 Aircobra. |
| 1946 |
Following the end of World War II, the War Assets Administration (WAA) returns the airport to the County for public use. |
| 1947 |
The reversion of the airport is formalized on October 9th when an Instrument of Transfer between the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and the WAA is executed. The airport is renamed Buchanan Field after County Supervisor William J. Buchanan, who served over 40 years as a board member. |
| 1949 |
Lights are installed on the north-south facing runway (1L/19R). |
| 1951 to 1953 |
U.S. Army uses Buchanan Field Airport to transport troops to and from Stoneman Base during the Korean War. |
| 1961 |
The five-story Air Traffic Control Tower is built. |
| 1968 |
SFO Helicopter Airlines begins service at Buchanan Field. |
| 1970 |
Golden Pacific Airlines becomes the first airline to fly fixed-wing aircraft (a Beech 99) at Buchanan Field. |
| 1977 |
Buchanan Field reaches its peak level of activity with 357,000 annual operations. Buchanan Field is ranked the 16th busiest airport in the nation, ahead of San Francisco International, JFK, LaGuardia and Washington Airports. |
| 1986 |
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) begins commercial jet service to Buchanan Field. The airline is later purchased by US Air, and is subsequently replaced by US Air Express. American Eagle also begins service during this time period. |
| 1988 |
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors institutes a County Noise Ordinance that restricts certain aircraft from operating at Buchanan Field. |
| 1989 |
Over 100 general aviation pilots fly over 50,000 pounds of food and emergency supplies from Buchanan Field as part of an emergency airlift to earthquake stricken residents of Santa Cruz County. |
| 1992 |
The Airport allows Reynolds & Brown to develop 13 acres of Buchanan Field airport property where Sam's Club, Taco Bell, Enterprise and Jiffy Lube now sit. |
| 1993 |
Contra Costa County purchases Byron Air Park and begins to retrofit the site as the County's second airport, located approximately 3 miles south of Byron, CA. |
| 1994 |
On October 8th, Byron Airport is officially dedicated. The new airport is situated on 1307 acres of land, of which 814 acres are reserved as Habitat Management Land (HML). The HML is habitat for special-status species including the San Joaquin kit fox, the California tiger salamander, the California red-legged frog and others. |
| 2003 |
Completion of the Byron Airport Habitat Management Land operating manual. The document prescribes the steps necessary to preserve and maintain the land that endangered and special-status species may inhabit. |
| 2008 |
Buchanan Field completes a Master Plan update. |
| 2016 |
On April 19th, Buchanan Field welcomed back commercial service in the form of JSX (JetSuiteX) schedule charter. JSX operates daily flights from Concord, CA to Burbank, CA and Las Vegas, NV |
| 2016 |
In October, the Contra Costa County Airports' completed an Economic Impact Assessment illustrating the economic significance of the Buchanan Field and Byron Airports to the region by contributing approximately $106 million annually to the region and the creation of 828. |
| 2018 |
On August 14th, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors recognized the contributions of the Buchanan Field and Byron Airports to the economic growth of Contra Costa County in a Board Resolution. |
| 2019 |
On February 26th, the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors authorized the promotion and marketing of Buchanan Field and the Byron Airport as testing locations for emerging aeronautical and aviation related technologies. |
