After landing in the provisional capital, Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi went straight to the palace to "supervise" the offensive, which is aimed at retaking rebel-controlled Taez province.
His return comes just days after his prime minister, Khaled Bahah, announced the government's return to the war-torn country.
The president has tried to return before.
In September, after six months exile in Saudi Arabia, Hadi and Bahah returned to Aden but had to go back to Riyadh after a deadly attack on the provisional seat of government in a hotel.
The UN says that some 5,000 people, more than half of them civilians, have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led intervention began.