Orlando International Airport rises to aviation superstardom
Central Florida becomes a global vacationland
Orlando International Airport (MCO) is today Florida’s busiest airport, handling nearly 58 million passengers a year. Its transformation from a modest municipal airfield into one of the world’s major aviation gateways is a remarkable story of military aviation, the Jet Age, tourism and extraordinary regional growth.
But Orlando’s aviation history began more than half a century before MCO became the airport we know today.
Orlando Municipal Airport — 1928
Orlando’s first commercial airport, Orlando Municipal Airport, opened in 1928. Located close to downtown, it became Central Florida’s principal airport, serving scheduled airlines including Eastern, National and, eventually, Delta.
During World War II, the airport was taken over by the U.S. Army for military purposes. After the war, it returned to the City of Orlando and resumed its role as the region’s primary commercial airport.
But the airport’s future was already being challenged by a new era in aviation.
Pinecastle Army Airfield — 1942
As the United States entered World War II, the Army acquired a large tract of land southeast of Orlando for a new military airfield. Pinecastle Army Airfield was constructed beginning in 1942–43 to support heavy bomber operations.
Unlike the relatively small Municipal Airport near downtown, Pinecastle occupied a vast area with long runways and plenty of room for expansion. After the war, the installation became Pinecastle Air Force Base and eventually an important Strategic Air Command facility.
The military airfield would ultimately provide the physical foundation for Orlando’s future commercial airport.
McCoy Air Force Base — 1958
The next major chapter came in 1957, when Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, Commander of the 321st bomb wing at Pinecastle, was killed in an aircraft crash near Orlando during a demonstration fight of a Boeing B-47 Stratojet. The following year, in 1958, Pinecastle Air Force Base was renamed McCoy Air Force Base in his honor. The new name would have a life far beyond the military base itself. When the property eventually became Orlando’s principal civilian airport, the airport retained the three-letter designator MCO, a legacy of its McCoy Air Force Base origins.
The Jet Age Comes to Orlando — 1962
By the early 1960s, Orlando Municipal Airport was increasingly unable to accommodate the larger, faster jet aircraft that were transforming commercial aviation. The solution was to make use of the enormous McCoy Air Force Base facility southeast of the city. Beginning in 1962, commercial airline operations began moving from Municipal Airport to McCoy. The transition took place gradually, with the airlines shifting their operations over several years. By 1968, scheduled commercial service had effectively moved to McCoy, while the old Municipal Airport increasingly became a general aviation facility.
Disney Changes Everything — 1971
The transformation of Orlando’s airport was about to accelerate dramatically.
On October 1, 1971, Walt Disney World opened, bringing a new dimension to Central Florida’s economy and tourism industry. The millions of visitors drawn to the region created an enormous and steadily growing demand for air transportation.
The timing could hardly have been more significant. Orlando now possessed a large former military airfield capable of expansion just as the city was beginning its transformation into one of the world’s leading tourist destinations.
From McCoy Air Force Base to Orlando International — 1974–1976
Military operations at McCoy declined as the Vietnam War era drew to a close, and McCoy Air Force Base was closed in 1974.
With the military installation no longer needed, the property could be transformed into the civilian airport Orlando increasingly required. The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) was established to oversee the region’s airports and guide their development.
In 1976, the airport received international status and was officially renamed Orlando International Airport. Yet the old McCoy identity survived in its airport code: MCO.
A New Gateway — 1981
The growing number of visitors to Central Florida quickly demonstrated that a much larger passenger facility would be necessary.
The answer was a completely new passenger terminal complex, which opened on October 2, 1981 — exactly ten years after Walt Disney World welcomed its first guests.
The new terminal was a dramatic statement about Orlando’s future. What had begun as a former military airfield was now becoming a major international gateway serving a rapidly expanding tourism and business center.
The growth that followed was extraordinary.
The Rise of MCO
As Central Florida developed into one of the world’s premier tourism destinations, Orlando International continued to expand. New concourses, gates, runways, parking facilities, roadways and transportation connections were added to accommodate the steady increase in passengers.
The airport’s growth was driven not only by Walt Disney World, but by the emergence of an entire tourism economy that included Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, convention facilities, hotels and attractions throughout the region.
By the 21st century, MCO had become one of the nation’s major passenger airports.
In 2022, Terminal C opened as part of a massive expansion program, adding 15 gates and a major new international arrivals facility connected to an intermodal transportation center.
Today, Orlando International Airport serves a worldwide network of travelers. In 2025, MCO handled 57,675,573 passengers, making it the busiest airport in Florida and one of the busiest passenger airports in the United States.
Orlando’s Aviation Story Comes Full Circle
The remarkable growth of MCO did not make Orlando Municipal Airport disappear from the map.
The original 1928 airport survives today as Orlando Executive Airport (ORL). Located only a few miles from downtown, it serves corporate, private and general aviation and remains an important reliever airport for Orlando International.
Together, Orlando International and Orlando Executive preserve more than a century of Central Florida aviation history.
From a small municipal field opened in 1928, to a wartime bomber base, to McCoy Air Force Base, to the international gateway that now handles nearly 58 million passengers annually, Orlando’s airports reflect the extraordinary transformation of Central Florida itself.
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