Abstract Background Reports on esophageal cancer with concurrent lung lesion cases are rare and mostly individual cases. Furthermore, the safety and feasibility of combined resection for patients with synchronous pulmonary lesions and esophageal cancer had always been a controversial topic. In the current study, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of patients who underwent simultaneous surgical resection for esophageal cancer with concurrent lung lesions, and explored their clinical characteristics, treatment outcomes, especially postoperative complications and prognosis. Method Patients who underwent esophagectomy between February 2009 and December 2022 were retrospectively reviewed at our center, and those with combined lung resection at the same setting were matched in a 1:1 propensity score matched (PSM) ratio to esophagectomy-alone patients. The main postoperative complications (including pneumonia, anastomotic leakage, pleural effusion, and other complications) and overall survival were compared. Results Of the 7152 esophagectomies, 222 cases of combined resection for synchronous pulmonary lesion (including 105 pneumatoceles, 71 benign nodules, and 46 malignant nodules) were eligible, and 1:1 ratio PSM esophagectomy-alone patients were matched. Wedge resection was the most frequent procedures (181, 81.5%). No significant differences were found in the incidence of postoperative complication between combined resection and esophagectomy-alone: pneumonia (21.2% vs. 20.7%), anastomotic leakage (7.2% vs. 6.3%), pleural effusion (15.3% vs. 13.1%). Moreover, different type of pulmonary lesions and extent of pulmonary resection also unaffected the incidence of postoperative complications. Survival analysis showed no significant difference for combined surgery or esophagectomy-alone. Conclusion In this large sample size study, combined resection dose not elevate the incidence of postoperative complications and weaken the overall survival for patients with synchronous esophageal carcinoma and pulmonary lesion. Therefore, for patients with clinically diagnosed esophageal cancer combined with lung lesions requiring surgery, the risk of concurrent resection may be acceptable.