Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport

History

Beginnings

Plans for a new airport began in 1940, as evidence mounted that the older Shushan Airport (New Orleans Lakefront Airport) was too small.

The airport was originally named Moisant Field after daredevil aviator John Moisant, who died in 1910 in an airplane crash on agricultural land where the airport is now located. Its IATA code MSY was derived from Moisant Stock Yards, as Lakefront Airport retained the code NEW. In World War II the land became a government air base. It returned to civil control after the war and commercial service commenced in May 1946. In September 1947, the airport was shut down as it was submerged under two feet of water in the wake of the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane's impact.

When commercial service began at Moisant Field in 1946, the terminal occupied a large, makeshift hangar-like building. A new terminal complex debuted in 1959 towards the end of Mayor DeLesseps "Chep" Morrison's administration. This structure, greatly expanded in the 1970s and the recipient of two rebuilt concourses in the 1990s and 2000s, comprised the passenger terminal until its replacement with the new North Terminal in November 2019. The former terminal contained two sections, East and West, connected by a central ticketing alley and baggage claim. Four concourses, A, B, C and D, were attached to the terminal, which eventually grew to a total of 47 gates. The vaulted arrivals lounge at the head of Concourse C and the adjacent, western half of the ticketing alley are the remaining portions of the airport's 1959 terminal complex.

Retired United States Air Force Major General Junius Wallace Jones served as airport director in the 1950s. During his term, a period of rapid change in civil aviation, the airport received many improvements. By the time the airport's 1959 terminal building opened, the name Moisant International Airport was being used for the New Orleans facility. In 1961, the name was changed to New Orleans International Airport. The airport's mid-1970s expansion included a lengthened main terminal ticketing area, an airport access road linking the terminal to Interstate 10, and the construction of Concourses A and B. The two original 1959 concourses were renamed Concourse C and Concourse D, with the latter receiving a four-gate addition at its terminus, designed to accommodate widebody aircraft.

In July 1978, National Airlines began flights to Amsterdam with continuing same-plane service to Frankfurt utilizing widebody McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. This was New Orleans' first nonstop transatlantic flight. Less than a month later, National added a stop in Tampa due to low demand. In May 1981, British Airways inaugurated a flight from London's Gatwick Airport to Mexico City that stopped in New Orleans. It flew a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar on the route. The airline, then government-owned, discontinued the service in October 1982 because of its deepening financial problems.

Northeastern International Airways operated a small hub at MSY in the spring of 1984. Another airline that attempted to operate a hub at MSY was short-lived Pride Air which was based in New Orleans and was operating nonstop or direct Boeing 727 service from the airport to sixteen destinations, including cities in California, Florida, and the western U.S., in the summer of 1985.

In July 2001, to honor the 100th anniversary of Louis Armstrong's birth (August 4, 1901), the airport's name became Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

Post-Katrina recovery and debut of new terminal

MSY reopened to commercial flights on September 13, 2005, after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina the previous month, with four flights operated by Delta Air Lines to Atlanta and a Northwest Airlines flight to Memphis. Slowly, service from other carriers began to resume. All international service into MSY was suspended while the FIS facility was closed post-Katrina. This facility was reopened in time to accommodate chartered flights arriving from London, Manchester, Bournemouth, and Nottingham (UK) carrying tourists arriving for the 2006 Mardi Gras and set to depart from the Port of New Orleans aboard a cruise liner.

MSY served 9,785,394 passengers in 2014, exceeding for the first time in the post-Katrina era the total passenger count of 9,733,179 achieved in 2004, the last full calendar year prior to Katrina's landfall in August 2005. A new record passenger count was set by the airport in 2015. 10,673,301 passengers were served, eclipsing the earlier record of 9.9 million passengers, set in 2000. In 2019 the airport served 13.1 million passengers.

In December 2015, the New Orleans Aviation Board, along with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the City Council, approved a plan to build a new $598 million terminal building on the north side of the airport property with two concourses and 30 gates. Designed by Argentine-American architect Cesar Pelli, construction on the new main terminal began in January 2016. During the construction, the scope of the project was expanded so the terminal would feature 35 gates. In March 2017, British Airways resumed flying to MSY, commencing nonstop service to London's Heathrow Airport using Boeing 787 widebody aircraft.

The new terminal opened in November 2019 at a cost of $1.3 billion. The former terminal, located on the south side of the airfield, is no longer in regular commercial use.

Facilities

Terminal

MSY has a single operational terminal with three concourses labeled A, B, and C. There are a total of 35 gates. Departures and Ticketing are on Level 3, TSA Security Screening is on Level 2, and Arrivals and Baggage Claim are on Level 1. International flights are processed in Concourse A, which contains the airport's customs facilities.

Ground transportation

The terminal is served by I-10. Bus service between the airport and downtown New Orleans is provided by New Orleans Regional Transit Authority Airport Express Route 202 and Jefferson Transit bus E-2. Airport Shuttle has services to most hotels and hostels in the Central Business District of New Orleans. The rental car facility is on the south side of the airfield next to the former terminal.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

| Air Canada | Toronto–Pearson | | Alaska Airlines | Seattle/Tacoma Seasonal: Portland (OR) | | Allegiant Air | Cincinnati, Punta Gorda (FL)| | American Airlines | Charlotte, Chicago–O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York–LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Washington–National | | American Eagle | Chicago–O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Washington–National Seasonal: Miami | | Breeze Airways | Charleston (SC), Fayetteville/Bentonville, Las Vegas (begins February 4, 2026), Los Angeles (resumes February 4, 2026), Myrtle Beach, Norfolk, Orlando, Raleigh/Durham, Richmond, Savannah, Tampa Seasonal: Cancún (begins February 7, 2026), Fort Myers, Jacksonville (FL), Pittsburgh | | British Airways | London–Heathrow | | Delta Air Lines | Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York–JFK, New York–LaGuardia, Salt Lake City | | Delta Connection | Austin| | Frontier Airlines | Atlanta, Baltimore (begins February 12, 2026), Dallas/Fort Worth (begins February 13, 2026), Denver, Detroit (begins February 12, 2026), Houston–Intercontinental (begins February 13, 2026), Orlando, Philadelphia| | JetBlue | Boston, Fort Lauderdale, New York–JFK | | Southwest Airlines | Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Cancún, Chicago–Midway, Dallas–Love, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Houston–Hobby, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York–LaGuardia, Orlando, Phoenix–Sky Harbor, San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis, Tampa, Washington–National Seasonal: Burbank, Long Beach, Raleigh/Durham| | Spirit Airlines | Cancún, Charlotte, Chicago–O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, San Pedro Sula, Tampa | |Sun Country Airlines| Seasonal: Minneapolis/St. Paul | | United Airlines | Chicago–O'Hare, Denver, Houston–Intercontinental, Newark, San Francisco, Washington–Dulles | | United Express | Seasonal: Chicago–O'Hare, Houston–Intercontinental, Newark, Washington–Dulles| }}

Cargo

| Amazon Air | Cincinnati, Lakeland | DHL Aviation | Cincinnati, Houston–Intercontinental, Memphis | FedEx Express | Indianapolis, Memphis | UPS Airlines | Houston–Intercontinental, Louisville, Ontario

Statistics

Passenger numbers

Annual traffic

Top domestic destinations

Airline market share

Accidents and incidents

• On November 16, 1959 National Airlines Flight 967, a Douglas DC-7 flying from Tampa to New Orleans crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. All 42 passengers and crew were killed.
• On February 25, 1964, Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 operated with a Douglas DC-8 flying from New Orleans International Airport to Washington Dulles International Airport crashed nine minutes after takeoff. All 51 passengers and 7 crew members were killed.
• On March 30, 1967, Delta Air Lines Flight 9877, a Douglas DC-8-51, a training exercise with 6 crew members aboard, crashed on approach to MSY at 12:50 AM CST after simulating a two-engine out approach, resulting in a loss of control. All 6 crewmembers and 13 on the ground were killed. The DC-8 crashed into a residential area, destroying several homes and a motel complex.
• On March 20, 1969, Douglas DC-3 N142D, leased from Avion Airways for a private charter, crashed on landing, killing 16 of the 27 passengers and crew members on board. The aircraft was operating a domestic non-scheduled passenger flight from Memphis International Airport, Tennessee.
• On July 9, 1982, Pan Am Flight 759, en route from Miami to San Diego, departed New Orleans International on its way to a second stop-over at Las Vegas. The Boeing 727-200 jetliner took off from the east–west runway (Runway 10/28) traveling east but never gained an altitude higher than 150 ft. The aircraft traveled 4,610 feet (1405 m) beyond the end of Runway 10, hitting trees along the way, until crashing into a residential neighborhood. A total of 153 people were killed (all 145 on board and 8 on the ground). The crash was, at the time, the second-deadliest civil aviation disaster in U.S. history. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the probable cause was the aircraft's encounter with a microburst-induced wind shear during the liftoff. This atmospheric condition created a downdraft and decreasing headwind forcing the plane downward. Modern wind shear detection equipment protecting flights from such conditions is now in place both onboard planes and at most commercial airports, including Armstrong International.
• On May 24, 1988, TACA Flight 110 was forced to glide without power and make an emergency landing on top of a levee east of New Orleans International Airport after flame-out in both engines of the Boeing 737-300 in a severe thunderstorm. There were no casualties and the aircraft was subsequently repaired and returned to service.
• On April 4, 2011, United Airlines Flight 497 en route from New Orleans to San Francisco made an emergency landing back at New Orleans after the flight crew reported smoke on board. The aircraft excursed from the runway during landing, sustaining minor damage. All 109 people on board evacuated the aircraft with no injuries. The NTSB determined that the captain had failed to properly manage the warning about smoke, which was actually erroneous and had been caused by contamination. No smoke was found on board the aircraft.

References

References

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3. {{FAA-airport
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