Orlando International Airport is a major public commercial service airport located six miles (10 km) southeast of the central business district of Orlando, a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is the busiest airport in the state of Florida.

The airport serves as a secondary hub for AirTran Airways and a focus city for both Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways. The airport hosts AirTran's corporate headquarters and operations center, though the airline maintains its main hub of operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Southwest Airlines is currently the airport's largest carrier in terms of passengers traveled; SWA carried one-fifth of all passenger traffic at MCO in 2006..

In 2007 MCO was visited by 36.48 million passengers, making it the 10th busiest airport in the United States on the basis of passenger traffic and the 20th-busiest in the World. It is the 15th busiest international gateway in the United States, behind Philadelphia International Airport; JFK International in New York City ranks first.. It is the third busiest international gateway in Florida, after Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport.

The airport code MCO stands for the airport's former name, McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) installation named for Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, USAF, commander of the 321st Bombardment Wing at the then-Pinecastle Air Force Base. Col McCoy died in the crash of a B-47 Stratojet during the annual Strategic Air Command (SAC) Bombing and Navigation Competition that was held at the base in 1957. Pinecastle AFB was later renamed McCoy AFB in his honor the following year. McCoy AFB later became home to the 306th Bombardment Wing operating the B-52 Stratofortress and the KC-135 Stratotanker. In the early 1960s, with the advent of commercial jet airline service to the Orlando area, the installation became a joint civil-military facility. Following the Vietnam War, McCoy AFB was identified for closure and all permanent party Air Force flight operations ceased in early 1975. The facility was briefly known as Orlando-McCoy Jetport until being renamed as Orlando International Airport. However, due to the proximity of Walt Disney World, some Floridians joke that MCO means "Mickey's Corporate Office."

The Greater Orlando area is also served by Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), and more indirectly by Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB), Melbourne International Airport (MLB), and Tampa International Airport (TPA).

History

Before 1974, the land the airport now sits on was largely owned by the United States Air Force, which operated an air force base there. The facility was originally constructed during World War II as Pinecastle Army Airfield, an auxiliary airfield to the then-Orlando Army Air Base, now known as Orlando Executive Airport. At the end of the war, Pinecastle was briefly used for unpowered glide tests of the Bell X-1 from B-29 aircraft before being relocated to Muroc Army Airfield, now Edwards AFB, California for the world's first supersonic flight. Briefly placed in caretaker status, the base was reactivated during the Korean War for development as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) facility for B-47 Stratojet and KC-97 Stratotanker aircraft. Renamed Pinecastle AFB, the base was later known as McCoy Air Force Base (AFB), operating B-52 Stratofortress bomber, KC-135 Stratotanker air refueling and EC-121 Warning Star airborne early warning aircraft.