When the first airline was founded in Colombia in 1919, it was necessary for the government to create an organization to oversight all aviation related activities. Law 126, 1919 made it possible for the executive power to rule every aspect of air navigation.

At first, an aviation technical agency was created to advice the Industry Ministry of which the Civil Aviation Agency was a part of .After that, all matters related to civil aviation were handled by the War Ministry and an aviation administrative office was set up.

Law 89, 1938 centralized all aviation related activities under the supervision of a special agency called Civil Aviation Administrative Office that was in charge of aerodrome services, air routings, aeronautical radio communications, meteorology and a patrol and surveillance unit.

The administrative office of the Colombian Civil Aviation Authority was part of the War Ministry´s military aviation administrative office.

Since 1919 Colombia is a member state of International Civil Aviation treaties. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was founded in 1944 when the Chicago Convention took place; this agreement was ratified by law 12, 1947 issued by the Colombian congress. Decree 969, 1947 established the Colombian Civil Aviation Authority organizational structure that became part of the War Ministry up to 1951.In 1951, it became part of the Public Works Ministry.

Fast technological advance made it necessary to set up a national agency in charge of providing and controlling aerodrome as well as air navigation services to oversight the Colombian airspace to guarantee national security.

For that reason the Colombian government decided to buy the existing aerodromes, most of them owned by Avianca, including their nav aids and communication infrastructure. The Colombian government also built new airports and provided maintenance to them, acquired nav aids and hired airport services.

The Colombian government by decree 3269 of November 10, 1954 created a decentralized institution called Colombian Aerodrome Enterprise (CAE) whose main functions were to build, improve and provide maintenance to public airports. This agency had a legal representation, administrative autonomy and its own equity.

In 1956 all aviation related activities were handled by the War Ministry. In order to provide the Civil Aviation Authority with financial and administrative autonomy, the Civil Aviation Administrative Agency was established by decree 1721, 1960, it had technical and specific administrative functions to lead aviation policies.