Juba’s aviation history begins in the colonial era. According to English Wikipedia, the first airfield was cleared in 1929, and in 1931 the Shell Company built a runway of crushed laterite. In February 1931 Imperial Airways opened its Cape-to-Cairo route, with a mooring place for its Calcutta flying-boats on the Nile near Rejaf, and in 1934 the aerodrome was expanded and local residents moved off the site.

The field grew slowly. Wikipedia’s account of a 1976 survey describes a 2,400 by 45 metre asphalt runway, access roads that were almost impassable in the rainy season, a very old radio beacon, weak VHF radio and no field lighting. In early February 1977 the airport was caught up in an unsuccessful coup attempt by former Anyanya fighters.

Independence brought money. In May 2011 the terminal, cargo facilities and runway resurfacing were being expanded, and in July 2011 a new lighting system with approach lights, taxiway lights, PAPI and a rotating beacon was commissioned. The terminal remained notorious: between 2016 and 2019 it was ranked among the worst in the world, at one point two adjacent tents, until a Chinese-built terminal opened on 29 October 2018. The single runway, 13/31, is now 3,100 metres long.

The Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly created an air force on paper in June 2008, but Juba had no military aircraft until the end of 2010. In May 2010 Major General Kuol Dim Kuol of the SPLA announced that the army had formed "a nucleus air force and navy", and the SPLA bought its first batch of ten Mi-17 helicopters from Kazan in Russia.

Wikipedia records that the first eight had been delivered by December 2010, flown into Juba Airport inside Antonov An-124 transports, and that the last two followed in January 2011. On 11 January 2011, in the week of the independence referendum, President Salva Kiir launched the South Sudan Air Force at a ceremony attended by senior officials of the Government of Southern Sudan and foreign diplomats. Wikipedia gives Juba as the location of the air force’s headquarters, which it calls Juba Air Base.

The most detailed public description of the military side of Juba comes from the UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan. In its final report of January 2016 the Panel said it had observed "on multiple occasions" the servicing of the government’s helicopters in Juba, with at least ten Caucasian and three African individuals present on one occasion, 26 November 2015. As of mid-December 2015, the Panel reported, the government had at least three operational Mi-24 attack helicopters and was awaiting another, and the defence ministry was seeking final payment for four additional attack helicopters at a total of US$35.7 million.

From July 2015 the Panel observed an Austrian-produced Diamond 42 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft at the military airport in Juba, providing, in its words, "advanced integrated aerial reconnaissance and targeting capabilities". It also found that the government had contracted Norwegian Development General Trading, based in Dubai, to build two helicopter hangars for a total of US$16.4 million. The Panel described the helicopters as central to the defence of Juba and of the oil installations at Paloich. The government did not publish its own account of these purchases.

In July 2016 fighting broke out in Juba between government forces and those of First Vice-President Riek Machar. Days earlier, on 7 July, the SPLA spokesman had announced that two jet fighters would fly an air show for the fifth Independence Day until 9 July and asked the public "not to panic"; his statement, as reported by Eye Radio, did not say where they would fly.

Wikipedia’s account of the battle, citing the journalist Peter Martell, says government fighter jets and attack helicopters attacked opposition forces on 10 July, and the Japan Times reported opposition camps at Jebel bombed by government helicopters. Explosions hit Tomping, the area that holds the airport, embassies and a UN base, and two Chinese peacekeepers were killed and eight wounded when their armoured personnel carrier was hit inside the UN base. On 15 July two Indian Air Force C-17 Globemasters flew 143 people out under Operation Sankat Mochan. Casualty figures and the conduct of the air attacks are as reported by those sources; the government has not published its own account of air operations in Juba.