Orlando International Airport is the primary international airport serving Orlando, Florida, located southeast of Downtown. In 2025, the airport served 57,675,573 passengers, making it the busiest airport in the state and the seventh busiest airport in the United States. The airport code MCO comes from the airport's former name, McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command installation, that was closed in 1975 as part of a general military drawdown following the end of the Vietnam War.
The airport serves as an operating base for Breeze Airways, Frontier Airlines, and Southwest Airlines as well as a focus city for JetBlue. Southwest is the airport's largest carrier by passengers carried. The airport is also a major international gateway for the Florida region, with over 1,000 daily flights on more than 40 airlines serving over 170 domestic and international destinations. At , MCO is one of the largest commercial airports in terms of land area in the United States., effective July 9, 2026. In addition, the airport is home to a maintenance base for United Airlines. The airport was also a hub for Delta Air Lines until 2007.
History
Military years
The airfield was originally constructed as a U.S. Army Air Forces facility and military operations began in 1942 as Orlando Army Air Field #2, an auxiliary airfield to Orlando Army Air Base, now known as Orlando Executive Airport. Orlando Army Air Field #2 was renamed Pinecastle Army Airfield in January 1943. At the end of World War II, Pinecastle was briefly used for unpowered glide tests of the Bell X-1 from B-29 aircraft before the program moved to Muroc Army Airfield in California– now Edwards AFB – for the world's first supersonic flight. With the establishment of an independent U.S. Air Force in 1947, the airfield was briefly placed in caretaker status, until being reactivated during the Korean War as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) facility for B-47 Stratojets and KC-97 Stratofreighters and renamed Pinecastle AFB.
In the 1950s, the base began hosting SAC's annual Bombing and Navigation Competition. A B-47 Stratojet crashed during the 1958 competition, killing Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, commander of the 321st Bombardment Wing, which was the host wing for Pinecastle AFB. The following year the base was renamed for McCoy. The base later was home to the 306th Bombardment Wing operating the B-52 Stratofortress and the KC-135 Stratotanker. It was also used by EC-121 Warning Star early warning aircraft of the 966th Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron, a tenant unit at McCoy assigned to the Aerospace Defense Command.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, McCoy AFB became a temporary forward operating base for more than 120 F-100 Super Sabre and F-105 Thunderchief fighter bombers and the primary base for U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flying over Cuba. One of these U-2s was shot down by Soviet-operated SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles near Banes, Cuba. Its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson Jr., USAF, was the crisis' only combat death. Following the crisis, McCoy AFB hosted a permanent U-2 operating detachment of the 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing until 1973.
McCoy AFB was identified for closure in early 1973 as part of a post-Vietnam reduction in force. The following year, McCoy's 306th Bombardment Wing was inactivated, its B-52D Stratofortress and KC-135A Stratotanker aircraft reassigned to other SAC units and most of the McCoy AFB facility turned over to the city of Orlando by the General Services Administration (GSA) in late 1974 and early and mid 1975. USAF responsibility for the airfield's air traffic control tower was turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airport established its own crash, fire and rescue department, initially utilizing equipment transferred by the GSA.
Civil-military years In the early 1960s, when jet airline flights came to Orlando, the installation became a joint civil-military facility.
Early jetliners such as the Boeing 707, Boeing 720, Douglas DC-8 and Convair 880 required longer and sturdier runways than the ones at Herndon Airport (now Orlando Executive Airport). Nearby lakes and commercial and residential development made expansion impractical, so an agreement was reached between the City of Orlando and the United States Air Force in 1962 to use McCoy AFB under a joint arrangement. The military offered a large AGM-28 Hound Dog missile maintenance hangar and its associated flight line ramp area in the northeast corner of the field for conversion into a civil air terminal. The city would then cover the cost of building a replacement missile maintenance hangar on the main base's western flight line. The new civil facility would be known as the Orlando Jetport at McCoy and would operate alongside McCoy AFB. This agreement became a model for other joint civil-military airports in operation today.Northwest Florida Regional AirportWichita Falls Municipal Airport
Airline flights to the Orlando Jetport began shortly after an agreement was signed by the city and USAF in October 1961. Over the next few years airline flights shifted from the old Herndon Airport (renamed in 1982 as the Orlando Executive Airport). In 1971 scheduled airlines were Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, National Airlines and Southern Airways.
The 1971 opening of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World led to a significant increase in air travel as Orlando became a major tourist destination. For much of the 1970s, Shawnee Airlines would directly link MCO with Walt Disney World using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter commuter aircraft. These connecting flights flew from MCO to the Walt Disney World STOL Airport, a small, short-lived airfield near the Magic Kingdom's parking lot. Deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 also contributed to increases in air service to Orlando.
When McCoy AFB closed in 1975, part of the facility stayed under military control to support Naval Training Center Orlando and several tenant commands until NTC Orlando was closed in 1999 pursuant to a post-Cold War 1993 BRAC Commission decision.
There are only a few enclaves on the original McCoy AFB site that the military still uses such as the 164th Air Defense Artillery Brigade from the Florida Army National Guard in the former McCoy AFB Officers Club complex, an Army Reserve intelligence unit in the former SAC Alert Facility, the 1st Lieutenant David R. Wilson Armed Forces Reserve Center supporting multiple units of the Army Reserve, Navy Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve that was constructed in 2002, and a large Navy Exchange for active, reserve and retired military personnel and their dependents.
Civil years
In 1975, the final Air Force contingent departed McCoy AFB and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) was established as a state-chartered local governmental agency and an enterprise fund of the city of Orlando. GOAA's mission was to operate, manage and oversee construction of expansions and improvements to both the Orlando International Airport and the Orlando Executive Airport. The airport gained its current name and international airport status a year later in 1976 but retained its old IATA airport code MCO and ICAO airport code KMCO.
The airport became a U.S. Customs Service Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) in 1978, said zone being designated as FTZ #42. In 1979, the facility was also designated as a large hub airport by the FAA based on flight operations and passenger traffic.
In 1978, construction of the current Landside Terminal and two Airsides on the west side of the terminal (known today as Airsides 1 and 3) began, opening in 1981. The terminal's layout was heavily based on the current terminal at Tampa International Airport, which opened a decade prior. In 1983 a small chapel was opened memorializing Michael Galvin who died during the construction of the airport's expansion. The original International Concourse was housed in Airside 1 and opened in 1984. Funding to commence developing the east side of the airport was bonded in 1986, with Runway 17/35 (now 17R/35L) completed in 1989. Airside 4 opened in 1990 and also contains an International Concourse for the processing of international flights. Airside 2, which filled out what will become known as the North Terminal complex, was completed in 2000, with the last additional gates added in 2006. Runway 17L/35R was opened in 2003, providing the airport with a total of four runways.
In 1978, the airport handled nearly 5.2 million passengers. By 2018, that number had risen to 47.7 million. Presently, it is the fifth-largest airport in the United States by land area after Denver International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport. At 11,605 acres, MCO has a larger footprint than John F. Kennedy International Airport, Miami International Airport, and Heathrow Airport combined. MCO has North America's fourth tallest control tower at 345 feet, replacing two earlier Air Force and FAA control towers.
Orlando was a designated Space Shuttle emergency landing site. The west-side runways, Runway 18L/36R and Runway 18R/36L, were designed for B-52 Stratofortress bombers, and due to their proximity to NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, were an obvious choice for an emergency landing should an emergency return to launch site (RTLS) attempt to land at KSC have fallen short. The runway was also an emergency divert site for NASA's Boeing 747 Shuttle Transport Aircraft when relocating orbiters from either west coast modification work or divert recoveries at Edwards AFB, California or the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
Eastern Air Lines used Orlando as a focus city during the 1970s and early 1980s, and became "the official airline of Walt Disney World." Following Eastern's demise, Delta Air Lines assumed this role.
Delta Air Lines began operating a hub at MCO in 1987. Airside 4, which opened in 1990, was primarily designed for Delta's hub operation and it included a ramp tower, an international arrivals facility, and a wing for regional aircraft under the people mover guideway. Delta would later pull much of its large aircraft from its hub operations and focused its service there on regional flights via their Delta Connection affiliate Comair. Comair operated intra-Florida flights as well as flights to other southeastern cities and to the Caribbean. In 2002, Chautauqua Airlines replaced Comair as the primary Delta Connection carrier at MCO. Delta closed the Orlando hub entirely in 2007.
Orlando-based AirTran Airways also operated a hub at MCO from 1993 until the airline's merger with Southwest Airlines in 2014. After Delta closed their hub in 2007, AirTran relocated their hub to Airside 4, using some of Delta's former gates which allowed them to double their capacity. AirTran merged with Southwest Airlines in 2014, which is today the busiest carrier at MCO.
Saudi Arabian Airlines began service to Orlando in 1994. Its seasonal flights to Jeddah proved popular among Saudi tourists. Bookings declined after the September 11 attacks, however, so Saudi Arabian terminated the link.
On February 22, 2005, the airport became the first airport in Florida to accept E-Pass and SunPass toll transponders as a form of payment for parking. The system allows drivers to enter and exit a parking garage without pulling a ticket or stopping to pay the parking fee. The two toll roads that serve the airport, SR 528 (Beachline Expressway) and SR 417 (Central Florida GreeneWay), use these systems for automatic toll collection.
The original terminal building, a converted hangar, was described as inadequate for the task at hand even when it was first opened as Orlando Jetport. After its closure in 1981, it passed through several tenants, the last of which was UPS. It was demolished in May 2006.