Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
Encyclopedia
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is a Class B
public use international airport
in Jefferson Parish
, Louisiana
, United States
. It is owned by the City of New Orleans
and is located 10 nautical mile
s (19 km
) west of its central business district
. The airport's address is 900 Airline Drive in Kenner, Louisiana
. A small portion of Runway 10/28 is located in unincorporated St. Charles Parish
. Armstrong International is the primary commercial airport for the New Orleans metropolitan area
and southeast Louisiana
. The airport was formerly known as Moisant Field, and it is also known as Louis Armstrong International Airport and New Orleans International Airport.
Sitting at an average of 4.5 feet (1.4 m) above sea level, MSY is the 2nd lowest-lying international airport in the world, behind only Amsterdam's Schiphol International Airport in the Netherlands
, which lies eleven feet below sea level. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, MSY served 9.7 million passengers per year, nearly all of them non-connecting. In 2009, it served 7,781,678 passengers, representing a decrease of 2.3% over the previous year.
In February 2008, U.S. News & World Report
ranked the travel experience at MSY 4th of the 47 busiest United States airports based upon the relatively small number of flight delays and frequently lower onboard flight loads.
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was once a major gateway for Latin America
n travel from the United States
. That travel now mostly goes through other cities which serve as hubs for international legacy airlines.
MSY opened after World War II
, replacing the older New Orleans Lakefront Airport
(which kept the NEW and KNEW airport code
s and now serves general aviation
) as the city's main airport. MSY was renamed in 2001 after Louis Armstrong
, a famous jazz
musician
from New Orleans. The National Weather Service
forecast
office
for the area was once located at MSY, but has moved to the suburb
of Slidell
, and now uses the non-airport codes LIX and KLIX.
aviator
John Moisant, who died in 1910 in an airplane crash on this land (which was devoted to farming
at the time). Its IATA code MSY was derived from Moisant Stock Yards
, as Lakefront Airport retained the "NEW" code.
Plans for Moisant Field were begun in 1940, as evidence mounted that New Orleans' older Shushan Airport (New Orleans Lakefront Airport
) was in need of expansion or replacement. With the advent of World War II
the land became a government air base. It was returned to civilian control after the war, and commercial service began at Moisant Field in May 1946.
On September 19, 1947, the airport was temporarily shut down as it was submerged under two feet of water in the wake of the 1947 Hurricane's
impact.
Starting in 1946, and for the next thirteen years, passengers arrived and departed from a large, hangar-like makeshift structure, until a new main terminal complex debuted in 1959 towards the end of Mayor DeLesseps "Chep" Morrison's administration. The core of this structure still forms much of the present day facility.
The Official Airline Guide for April 1957 shows 26 weekday departures on Delta, 25 Eastern, 11 National, 5 Capital, 4 Southern and 3 Braniff. Pan Am had six departures a week and TACA had four.
On November 16, 1959 National Airlines Flight 967
, a Douglas DC-7
flying from Tampa to New Orleans, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
During the administration of Morrison's successor, Vic Schiro
, formal government-sponsored studies were undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of relocating Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to a new site, contemporaneous with similar efforts that were ultimately successful in Houston (George Bush Intercontinental Airport
) and Dallas (Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
). This attempt got as far as recommending a site in New Orleans East
; a man-made island was to be created south of I-10
and north of U.S. Route 90
in a bay of Lake Pontchartrain
. However, in the early 1970s it was decided that the current airport should be expanded instead, leading to the construction of a lengthened main terminal ticketing area, an airport access road linking the terminal to I-10, and the present-day Concourses A and B. New Orleans Mayor Sidney Barthelemy
, in office from 1986 to 1994, later reintroduced the idea of building a new international airport for the city, with consideration given to other sites in New Orleans East, as well as on the Northshore in suburban St. Tammany Parish
. Only a couple months before Hurricane Katrina's landfall, Mayor Ray Nagin
again proposed a new airport for New Orleans, this time to the west in Montz, Louisiana
. These initiatives met with the same fate as 1960s-era efforts in new airport building for New Orleans.
Historically, Eastern Air Lines
provided extensive service from MSY, including Boeing 727
Whisperjet service to Dallas, Tampa, and Miami, as well as to New York City and Atlanta. Utilizing such aircraft as 727s, Douglas DC-8
s, and DC-10s, National Airlines
at different times served Miami, Amsterdam, Tampa, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Through 1979, Southern Airways
Douglas DC-9s
frequented Armstrong International, a busy stop on its regional short-haul network. Delta Air Lines
was another leading carrier at MSY, and for years carried more passengers out of New Orleans than any other airline. Its nonstop jet service to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles from New Orleans was advertised for decades on a prominent billboard sited on Canal Street
downtown
. Southwest Airlines
now carries the most passengers in and out of New Orleans.
MSY was also the hub for short-lived Pride Air
, an airline which operated for three months in 1985 using Boeing 727 aircraft.
On July 11, 2001, the airport was renamed after jazz musician Louis Armstrong
in honor of the centennial of his birth.
N142D, leased from Avion Airways for a private charter, crashed on landing killing 16 of the 27 passengers and crew on board. The aircraft was operating a domestic non-scheduled passenger flight from Memphis International Airport
, Tennessee
.
, en route from Miami to Las Vegas, departed New Orleans International. The Boeing 727-200 plane took off from the east-west runway (Runway 10/28) traveling east but never gained an altitude higher than 150 feet (45.7 m). The plane 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
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.
struck New Orleans, and it remained closed as floods affected the city. The Associated Press
reported on August 31 that MSY would receive humanitarian flights, and that the airport "has no significant airfield damage and had no standing water in aircraft movement areas", although the airport did, as the article put it, "[sustain] damage to its roofs, hangars and fencing." In early September, the airport opened only to military aircraft
and humanitarian flights, and served as a staging center for evacuees
. The airport reopened to commercial flights on September 13, 2005.
, United
, AirTran Airways
, and international arrivals were based. Many temporary repairs dating from Hurricane Katrina failed, including one roof patch, forcing airlines based in the concourse to relocate operations to vacant gates. Jetways and other ground equipment also sustained damage. The damage was rated by the National Weather Service
and the tornado was rated F1
. As of late 2006, all of this had been repaired.
to Atlanta and a Northwest Airlines
flight to Memphis
. Slowly, service from other carriers began to resume, with limited service offered by Southwest Airlines
, Continental Airlines
, and American Airlines
.
Eventually, all carriers announced their return to MSY, with the exception of America West Airlines
(which merged into US Airways
two weeks later) and international carrier TACA. In early 2006 Continental Airlines
became the first airline to return to pre-Katrina flight frequency levels, and in September 2006, to pre-Katrina seat capacity levels.
MSY served 8,153,511 passengers in 2010, or 83.8% of the pre-Katrina high of 9,733,179 passengers in 2004, as well as the all-time high of 9.9million passengers who utilized the airfield in 2000.
In May 2010, AirTran announced new daily nonstop service to its hub in Milwaukee utilizing Boeing 717 aircraft and beginning on October 7, 2010. This route marks MSY's first all-new city addition since 1998.
In November 2010, United announced resumption of daily nonstop service to San Francisco, the largest pre-Katrina domestic market that had yet to resume service to New Orleans.
On January 17, 2008; the city's aviation board voted on an amended incentive program which waives landing fees for the first two airlines to fly nonstop into a city not presently served from the airport. Under the new ruling, landing fees will be waived for up to two airlines flying into an "underserved destination airport." The incentive previously referred to service to a "new destination airport."
The airport is also continuing its incentive to airlines that reach 85% of their pre-Katrina flight frequencies.
Also, on December 6, 2006 Armstrong International launched an $8 million maintenance campaign to clean and improve the terminal environment. Dubbed Music To Your Eyes, the campaign is designed to transform the airport into a more visitor-friendly facility, with improvements to lighting, cleanliness, seating, baggage claim maintenance, curbside congestion, and designated smoking areas.
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport covers an area of 1500 acres (607 ha) at an elevation
of 4 feet (1 m) above mean sea level. It has three runway
s: 10/28 is 10,104 by 150 feet (3,080 x 46 m) with a concrete surface; 1/19 is 7,001 by 150 feet (2,134 x 46 m) with a concrete surface; 6/24 is 3,570 by 150 feet (1,088 x 46 m) with an asphalt surface.
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2007, the airport had 129,228 aircraft operations, an average of 354 per day: 58% scheduled commercial
, 21% general aviation
and 19% air taxi
and 1% military
. At that time there were 19 aircraft based at this airport: 21% single-engine
, 21% multi-engine, 42% jet
and 16% helicopter
.
to Toronto
and Grupo TACA
to San Pedro Sula
in Honduras
. Historically, MSY has hosted routes to nearly thirty nonstop international destinations, several of them intercontinental. In the early 1980s, the city was a stop on the British Airways
flight between London
and Mexico City
. The Lockheed
L1011 aircraft used for the route landed in New Orleans to pick up passengers and fuel. National Airlines
also flew nonstop to Amsterdam
, Frankfurt
, and Paris
from MSY, using DC-10 aircraft. At different times Eastern Air Lines
offered nonstop service to Caracas
, Venezuela and Panama City
, Panama.
Continental Airlines
offered flights to Mexico City
and Cancun
in the 1980s, as did AeroMexico
. TWA
offered Mexico City service with McDonnell Douglas MD-80 equipment in the 1990s and into the early 2000s.
Delta
inaugurated the airline's first international services in the 1950s with flights from New Orleans to Havana
, Cuba, and Montego Bay
, Jamaica, continuing to Caracas
, Venezuela. Delta operated DC-8 aircraft from MSY to Havana continuing on to Haiti
and the Dominican Republic
until the Cuban Revolution
. Delta service from MSY to Jamaica and Venezuela, including Maracaibo
and Caracas, and to San Juan, Puerto Rico, were discontinued gradually between the mid 1970s to 1980 as Delta refocused their strategy away from the Caribbean.
VIASA
served New Orleans in the 1960s, offering Convair 880 jet service to Venezuela.
Throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s Aviateca
, LACSA
, TAN
/SAHSA
and TACA
provided both nonstop and same-plane direct services to several Central America
n destinations, including Belize City
, Guatemala City
, San Pedro Sula
, Tegucigalpa
, La Ceiba
, Roatan
, San Salvador
, Merida
, Cancun
, and San Jose
. TACA was even headquartered in New Orleans, before returning its headquarters to Central America in 1982. The networks of essentially all of the aforementioned defunct Central American carriers have, as of today, been absorbed into that of Grupo TACA.
Twice weekly seasonal New Orleans to Montego Bay nonstops via the Jamaica Shuttle/Casino Express
(typically operated by chartered Boeing 727-200's or 737-300's) operated during most of the 1990s and into the 2000s.
Laker Airways
operated twice weekly seasonal B727-200 flights between New Orleans and Freeport, Bahamas in the early 2000s.
Vacation Express
operated twice weekly seasonal charters between New Orleans and Cancun for several years using a mix of B727-200, B737-200, B737-300, and MD-80 equipment; This service was suspended after the company decided to concentrate on selling seats on scheduled flights instead of chartering aircraft.
All international service into MSY was suspended while the FIS facility was closed post-Katrina. The facility reopened to an influx of chartered flights arriving from London, Manchester, Bournemouth, and Nottingham, UK - all carrying tourists in for Mardi Gras and set to depart aboard a cruise liner.
On March 8, 2011, MSY was one of eight cities given approval for charter flights to Cuba. Flights are expected to begin before the end of 2011.
On July 14, 2010, Air Canada
announced the resumption of daily nonstop service between Toronto and New Orleans, utilizing Bombardier CRJ-705 equipment (operated by Air Canada Express
) with 2 classes of service. This route started on October 30, 2010.
On April 7, 2009, it was announced that AeroMexico would begin 6-times weekly nonstop flights between New Orleans and Mexico City on July 6, 2009, with the service operated by Aerolitoral dba AeroMexico Connect. AeroMexico made several changes to its US network in the spring of 2010, and MSY-MEX service was reduced to an intermittent 2-3 times weekly frequency in March of that year. Aeromexico removed the route from their reservation system in June 2010, and the last flight operated on July 26, 2010.
Louis Armstrong International has two terminals, East and West, connected by a central ticketing alley. Attached are four concourses, A, B, C, and D.
There are plans to convert Concourse A into airport offices as part of ongoing remodeling efforts to restructure the airport to eventually use a single TSA checkpoint and facilitate a new "mall" and concessions area in the current concourse D check-in space. The concourse's fate is under review as traffic growth has exceeded expectations and the concourse may be reopened.
Concourse B is eventually planned to be utilized only for charter operations, with its scheduled carriers (US Airways, AirTran Airways, and Southwest) migrating to Concourses C and D.
Concourse C opened in 1991 and has 15 Gates: C1 - C12, C14 - C16
Concourse D has 7 operating Gates: D1 - D6 and D8
Airspace class (United States)
The United States airspace system's classification scheme is to provide maximum pilot flexibility with acceptable levels of risk appropriate to the type of operation and traffic density within that class of airspace - in particular to provide separation and active control in areas of dense or...
public use international airport
International airport
An international airport is any airport that can accommodate flights from other countries and are typically equipped with customs and immigration facilities to handle these flights to and from other countries...
in Jefferson Parish
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Jefferson Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States that includes most of the suburbs of New Orleans. The seat of parish government is Gretna....
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is owned by the City of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
and is located 10 nautical mile
Nautical mile
The nautical mile is a unit of length that is about one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian, but is approximately one minute of arc of longitude only at the equator...
s (19 km
Kilometre
The kilometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second...
) west of its central business district
New Orleans Central Business District
The Central Business District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the French Quarter/CBD Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Iberville, Decatur and Canal Streets to the north, the Mississippi River to the east, the New Orleans Morial...
. The airport's address is 900 Airline Drive in Kenner, Louisiana
Kenner, Louisiana
Kenner is a city in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 66,702 at the 2010 census....
. A small portion of Runway 10/28 is located in unincorporated St. Charles Parish
St. Charles Parish, Louisiana
St. Charles Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Hahnville. In 2010, its population was 52,780. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, this was part of the German Coast, an area along the Mississippi River settled by numerous German pioneers in the...
. Armstrong International is the primary commercial airport for the New Orleans metropolitan area
New Orleans metropolitan area
New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner, or the Greater New Orleans Region is a metropolitan area designated by the United States Census encompassing seven parishes in the state of Louisiana, centering on the city of New Orleans...
and southeast Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. The airport was formerly known as Moisant Field, and it is also known as Louis Armstrong International Airport and New Orleans International Airport.
Sitting at an average of 4.5 feet (1.4 m) above sea level, MSY is the 2nd lowest-lying international airport in the world, behind only Amsterdam's Schiphol International Airport in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, which lies eleven feet below sea level. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, MSY served 9.7 million passengers per year, nearly all of them non-connecting. In 2009, it served 7,781,678 passengers, representing a decrease of 2.3% over the previous year.
In February 2008, U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
ranked the travel experience at MSY 4th of the 47 busiest United States airports based upon the relatively small number of flight delays and frequently lower onboard flight loads.
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was once a major gateway for Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n travel from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. That travel now mostly goes through other cities which serve as hubs for international legacy airlines.
MSY opened after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, replacing the older New Orleans Lakefront Airport
New Orleans Lakefront Airport
Lakefront Airport is a public use airport located four nautical miles northeast of the central business district of New Orleans, in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States...
(which kept the NEW and KNEW airport code
Airport code
An airport code is a short code used to identify a specific airport. There are two international systems used:*IATA airport code, a three-letter code which is more commonly known to the public...
s and now serves general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
) as the city's main airport. MSY was renamed in 2001 after Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, a famous jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
from New Orleans. The National Weather Service
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
forecast
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
for the area was once located at MSY, but has moved to the suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Slidell
Slidell, Louisiana
Slidell is a city situated on the northeast shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 25,695 at the 2000 census. The Greater Slidell Community has a population of about 90,000...
, and now uses the non-airport codes LIX and KLIX.
History
The airport was originally named after daredevilStunt performer
A stuntman, or daredevil is someone who performs dangerous stunts, often as a career.These stunts are sometimes rigged so that they look dangerous while still having safety mechanisms, but often they are as dangerous as they appear to be...
aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
John Moisant, who died in 1910 in an airplane crash on this land (which was devoted to farming
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
at the time). Its IATA code MSY was derived from Moisant Stock Yards
Feedlot
A feedlot or feedyard is a type of animal feeding operation which is used in factory farming for finishing livestock, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations . They...
, as Lakefront Airport retained the "NEW" code.
Plans for Moisant Field were begun in 1940, as evidence mounted that New Orleans' older Shushan Airport (New Orleans Lakefront Airport
New Orleans Lakefront Airport
Lakefront Airport is a public use airport located four nautical miles northeast of the central business district of New Orleans, in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States...
) was in need of expansion or replacement. With the advent of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the land became a government air base. It was returned to civilian control after the war, and commercial service began at Moisant Field in May 1946.
On September 19, 1947, the airport was temporarily shut down as it was submerged under two feet of water in the wake of the 1947 Hurricane's
1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane
The Fort Lauderdale Hurricane was an intense Category 5 hurricane that affected the Bahamas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi in September of the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season...
impact.
Starting in 1946, and for the next thirteen years, passengers arrived and departed from a large, hangar-like makeshift structure, until a new main terminal complex debuted in 1959 towards the end of Mayor DeLesseps "Chep" Morrison's administration. The core of this structure still forms much of the present day facility.
The Official Airline Guide for April 1957 shows 26 weekday departures on Delta, 25 Eastern, 11 National, 5 Capital, 4 Southern and 3 Braniff. Pan Am had six departures a week and TACA had four.
On November 16, 1959 National Airlines Flight 967
National Airlines Flight 967
National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C, was a Douglas DC-7B aircraft which disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana on November 16, 1959...
, a Douglas DC-7
Douglas DC-7
The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas, coming just a few years before the advent of jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.-Design and...
flying from Tampa to New Orleans, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
During the administration of Morrison's successor, Vic Schiro
Victor H. Schiro
Victor Hugo "Vic" Schiro , was an American New Orleans, Louisiana, politician who served on the City Council and as Mayor from 1961 - 1970.- Early life and political career :...
, formal government-sponsored studies were undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of relocating Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to a new site, contemporaneous with similar efforts that were ultimately successful in Houston (George Bush Intercontinental Airport
George Bush Intercontinental Airport
George Bush Intercontinental Airport, is a Class B international airport in Houston, Texas, serving the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area, the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Located north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and U.S. Highway 59...
) and Dallas (Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and is the busiest airport in the U.S. state of Texas...
). This attempt got as far as recommending a site in New Orleans East
Eastern New Orleans
Eastern New Orleans is a large section of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Developed extensively from the 1960s onwards, it was originally marketed as "suburban-style living within the city limits", and has much in common with the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans...
; a man-made island was to be created south of I-10
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 is the fourth-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, after I-90, I-80, and I-40. It is the southernmost east–west, coast-to-coast Interstate Highway, although I-4 and I-8 are further south. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean at State Route 1 in Santa Monica,...
and north of U.S. Route 90
U.S. Route 90
U.S. Route 90 is an east–west United States highway. Despite the "0" in its route number, U.S. 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route; it has always ended at Van Horn, Texas. A short-lived northward extension to U.S...
in a bay of Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...
. However, in the early 1970s it was decided that the current airport should be expanded instead, leading to the construction of a lengthened main terminal ticketing area, an airport access road linking the terminal to I-10, and the present-day Concourses A and B. New Orleans Mayor Sidney Barthelemy
Sidney Barthelemy
Sidney John Barthelemy is a former American political figure. He served as Democratic mayor of New Orleans from 1986 to 1994...
, in office from 1986 to 1994, later reintroduced the idea of building a new international airport for the city, with consideration given to other sites in New Orleans East, as well as on the Northshore in suburban St. Tammany Parish
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
St. Tammany Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana, in the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area. The parish seat is Covington....
. Only a couple months before Hurricane Katrina's landfall, Mayor Ray Nagin
Ray Nagin
Clarence Ray Nagin, Jr. is a former mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Nagin gained international note in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the New Orleans area....
again proposed a new airport for New Orleans, this time to the west in Montz, Louisiana
Montz, Louisiana
Montz is a census-designated place in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,120 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Montz is located at ....
. These initiatives met with the same fate as 1960s-era efforts in new airport building for New Orleans.
Historically, Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...
provided extensive service from MSY, including Boeing 727
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...
Whisperjet service to Dallas, Tampa, and Miami, as well as to New York City and Atlanta. Utilizing such aircraft as 727s, Douglas DC-8
Douglas DC-8
The Douglas DC-8 is a four-engined narrow-body passenger commercial jet airliner, manufactured from 1958 to 1972 by the Douglas Aircraft Company...
s, and DC-10s, National Airlines
National Airlines (NA)
National Airlines was an airline founded in 1934 and was headquartered on the grounds of Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States near Miami.- History :...
at different times served Miami, Amsterdam, Tampa, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Through 1979, Southern Airways
Southern Airways
Southern Airways was a regional airline operating in the United States from its founding by Frank Hulse in 1949 until 1979 when it merged with North Central Airlines to become Republic Airlines, which on October 1, 1986, became part of Northwest Airlines, which in 2008 became a part of Delta Air...
Douglas DC-9s
McDonnell Douglas DC-9
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is a twin-engine, single-aisle jet airliner. It was first manufactured in 1965 with its maiden flight later that year. The DC-9 was designed for frequent, short flights. The final DC-9 was delivered in October 1982.The DC-9 was followed in subsequent modified forms by...
frequented Armstrong International, a busy stop on its regional short-haul network. Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
was another leading carrier at MSY, and for years carried more passengers out of New Orleans than any other airline. Its nonstop jet service to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles from New Orleans was advertised for decades on a prominent billboard sited on Canal Street
Canal Street, New Orleans
Canal Street is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans. Forming the upriver boundary of the city's oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter , it acted as the dividing line between the older French/Spanish Colonial-era city and the newer American Sector, today's Central Business District.The...
downtown
New Orleans Central Business District
The Central Business District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the French Quarter/CBD Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Iberville, Decatur and Canal Streets to the north, the Mississippi River to the east, the New Orleans Morial...
. Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co. is an American low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas. Southwest is the largest airline in the United States, based upon domestic passengers carried,...
now carries the most passengers in and out of New Orleans.
MSY was also the hub for short-lived Pride Air
Pride Air
Pride Air is a defunct United States airline which operated for three months during 1985. Pride Air was based out of New Orleans International Airport.-History:...
, an airline which operated for three months in 1985 using Boeing 727 aircraft.
On July 11, 2001, the airport was renamed after jazz musician Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
in honor of the centennial of his birth.
Airport Director
The City has chosen Iftikhar Ahmad to be the Director of Aviation. Mr. Ahmad was approved for employment at MSY in April, 2010. He is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a Master’s of Science in Civil Engineering. Ahmad left his Director of Aviation post at Dayton, Ohio International Airport where he had been since 2006 to work for MSY. Prior to Dayton, Ahmad had worked in airport management for the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority and the Houston Airport System, which oversees both Houston Bush Intercontinental and Houston Hobby Airports.Incidents
On March 20, 1969, Douglas DC-3Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
N142D, leased from Avion Airways for a private charter, crashed on landing killing 16 of the 27 passengers and crew on board. The aircraft was operating a domestic non-scheduled passenger flight from Memphis International Airport
Memphis International Airport
Memphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
.
Pan Am Flight 759
On July 9, 1982, Pan Am Flight 759Pan Am Flight 759
Pan Am Flight 759, operated by a Boeing 727-235, N4737 Clipper Defiance, was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Miami to Las Vegas, with an en route stop at New Orleans...
, en route from Miami to Las Vegas, departed New Orleans International. The Boeing 727-200 plane took off from the east-west runway (Runway 10/28) traveling east but never gained an altitude higher than 150 feet (45.7 m). The plane 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
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
determined the probable cause was the aircraft's encounter with a microburst
Microburst
A microburst is a very localized column of sinking air, producing damaging divergent and straight-line winds at the surface that are similar to, but distinguishable from, tornadoes, which generally have convergent damage. There are two types of microbursts: wet microbursts and dry microbursts...
-induced wind shear
Wind shear
Wind shear, sometimes referred to as windshear or wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere...
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.
Hurricane Katrina
The airport was closed to commercial air traffic on August 28, 2005, shortly before Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
struck New Orleans, and it remained closed as floods affected the city. The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported on August 31 that MSY would receive humanitarian flights, and that the airport "has no significant airfield damage and had no standing water in aircraft movement areas", although the airport did, as the article put it, "[sustain] damage to its roofs, hangars and fencing." In early September, the airport opened only to military aircraft
Military aircraft
A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:...
and humanitarian flights, and served as a staging center for evacuees
Emergency evacuation
Emergency evacuation is the immediate and rapid movement of people away from the threat or actual occurrence of a hazard. Examples range from the small scale evacuation of a building due to a bomb threat or fire to the large scale evacuation of a district because of a flood, bombardment or...
. The airport reopened to commercial flights on September 13, 2005.
February 2006 tornado
At about 2:30 EST in the morning on February 2, 2006, a tornado touched down on the grounds of MSY. The damage from the tornado was significant but primarily confined to Concourse C, where AmericanAmerican Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
, United
United
-Travel:* United Airlines* United Automobile Services, a bus operator in England, now merged with the Arriva Group* United Bus, a bus manufacturing group-Sports:...
, AirTran Airways
AirTran Airways
AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of the Dallas, Texas-based Southwest Airlines, is an American low-cost airline headquartered in Orlando, Florida. AirTran operates over 650 daily flights , primarily in the eastern and midwestern United States...
, and international arrivals were based. Many temporary repairs dating from Hurricane Katrina failed, including one roof patch, forcing airlines based in the concourse to relocate operations to vacant gates. Jetways and other ground equipment also sustained damage. The damage was rated by the National Weather Service
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
and the tornado was rated F1
Fujita scale
The Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...
. As of late 2006, all of this had been repaired.
Post-Katrina capacity restoration
MSY reopened to commercial flights on September 13, 2005, with four flights operated by Delta Air LinesDelta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
to Atlanta and a Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...
flight to Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. Slowly, service from other carriers began to resume, with limited service offered by Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co. is an American low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas. Southwest is the largest airline in the United States, based upon domestic passengers carried,...
, Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
, and American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
.
America West Airlines
America West Airlines corporate offices were in Tempe, Arizona and the main hub was at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The airline became part of the US Airways Group after a merger in 2005....
(which merged into US Airways
US Airways
US Airways, Inc. is a major airline based in the U.S. city of Tempe, Arizona. The airline is an operating unit of US Airways Group and is the sixth largest airline by traffic and eighth largest by market value in the country....
two weeks later) and international carrier TACA. In early 2006 Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
became the first airline to return to pre-Katrina flight frequency levels, and in September 2006, to pre-Katrina seat capacity levels.
MSY served 8,153,511 passengers in 2010, or 83.8% of the pre-Katrina high of 9,733,179 passengers in 2004, as well as the all-time high of 9.9million passengers who utilized the airfield in 2000.
In May 2010, AirTran announced new daily nonstop service to its hub in Milwaukee utilizing Boeing 717 aircraft and beginning on October 7, 2010. This route marks MSY's first all-new city addition since 1998.
In November 2010, United announced resumption of daily nonstop service to San Francisco, the largest pre-Katrina domestic market that had yet to resume service to New Orleans.
Incentives to airlines
On November 21, 2006; the New Orleans Aviation Board approved an air service initiative to promote increased service to Armstrong International:- Airlines qualify for a $0.75 credit per seat toward terminal use charges for scheduled departing seats exceeding 85% of pre-Katrina capacity levels for a twelve-month period.
- Airlines qualify for a waiver of landing fees for twelve months following the initiation of service to an airport not presently served from New Orleans.
On January 17, 2008; the city's aviation board voted on an amended incentive program which waives landing fees for the first two airlines to fly nonstop into a city not presently served from the airport. Under the new ruling, landing fees will be waived for up to two airlines flying into an "underserved destination airport." The incentive previously referred to service to a "new destination airport."
The airport is also continuing its incentive to airlines that reach 85% of their pre-Katrina flight frequencies.
Incentives to passengers
In November 2006, the airport opened a "cell phone lot" at the corner of Airline Drive and Hollandey Street across from the Airport Access Road to allow people picking up arriving passengers to wait until an arriving passenger calls to say they are ready for pickup.Also, on December 6, 2006 Armstrong International launched an $8 million maintenance campaign to clean and improve the terminal environment. Dubbed Music To Your Eyes, the campaign is designed to transform the airport into a more visitor-friendly facility, with improvements to lighting, cleanliness, seating, baggage claim maintenance, curbside congestion, and designated smoking areas.
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport covers an area of 1500 acres (607 ha) at an elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
of 4 feet (1 m) above mean sea level. It has three runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
s: 10/28 is 10,104 by 150 feet (3,080 x 46 m) with a concrete surface; 1/19 is 7,001 by 150 feet (2,134 x 46 m) with a concrete surface; 6/24 is 3,570 by 150 feet (1,088 x 46 m) with an asphalt surface.
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2007, the airport had 129,228 aircraft operations, an average of 354 per day: 58% scheduled commercial
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
, 21% general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
and 19% air taxi
Air taxi
An air taxi is an air charter passenger or cargo aircraft which operates on an on-demand basis.-Regulation:In the United States, air taxi and air charter operations are governed by Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations , unlike the larger scheduled air carriers which are governed by more...
and 1% military
Military aviation
Military aviation is the use of aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling warfare, including national airlift capacity to provide logistical supply to forces stationed in a theater or along a front. Air power includes the national means of conducting such...
. At that time there were 19 aircraft based at this airport: 21% single-engine
Aircraft engine
An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...
, 21% multi-engine, 42% jet
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
and 16% helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
.
International services
Armstrong International's Concourse C, located in the airport's West Terminal, contains a fully enclosed US Customs, Immigration, and FIS facility. The majority of the concourse's 15 gates offer direct access to this area and are thus capable of accepting foreign arrivals from all over the world, on aircraft as large as Boeing 747-400s.Past international services
Before Hurricane Katrina (2005), regularly scheduled international services from Armstrong International were provided by Air CanadaAir Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and largest airline of Canada. The airline, founded in 1936, provides scheduled and charter air transport for passengers and cargo to 178 destinations worldwide. It is the world's tenth largest passenger airline by number of destinations, and the airline is a...
to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Grupo TACA
Grupo TACA
TACA is the trade name "brand" comprising a group of five independently IATA-coded and -owned Central American airlines, whose operations are combined to function as one and a number of other independently owned and IATA-coded regional airlines which code-share and feed the TACA brand system...
to San Pedro Sula
San Pedro Sula
San Pedro Sula is a city in Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country, in the Valle de Sula , about 60 km south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean. With an estimated population of 638,259 people in the main municipality, and 802,598 in its metro area , it is the second...
in Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. Historically, MSY has hosted routes to nearly thirty nonstop international destinations, several of them intercontinental. In the early 1980s, the city was a stop on the British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
flight between London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. The Lockheed
Lockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace company. Lockheed was founded in 1912 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995.-Origins:...
L1011 aircraft used for the route landed in New Orleans to pick up passengers and fuel. National Airlines
National Airlines (NA)
National Airlines was an airline founded in 1934 and was headquartered on the grounds of Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States near Miami.- History :...
also flew nonstop to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
from MSY, using DC-10 aircraft. At different times Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...
offered nonstop service to Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela and Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
, Panama.
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
offered flights to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
and Cancun
Cancún
Cancún is a city of international tourism development certified by the UNWTO . Located on the northeast coast of Quintana Roo in southern Mexico, more than 1,700 km from Mexico City, the Project began operations in 1974 as Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR Cancún is a city of...
in the 1980s, as did AeroMexico
Aeroméxico
Airways of Mexico, SA de CV , operating as Aeroméxico, is the flag carrier airline of Mexico based in Colonia Cuauhtémoc, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City. It operates scheduled domestic and international services to North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia...
. TWA
Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...
offered Mexico City service with McDonnell Douglas MD-80 equipment in the 1990s and into the early 2000s.
Delta
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
inaugurated the airline's first international services in the 1950s with flights from New Orleans to Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba, and Montego Bay
Montego Bay
Montego Bay is the capital of St. James Parish and the second largest city in Jamaica by area and the fourth by population .It is a tourist destination with duty free shopping, cruise line terminal and the beaches...
, Jamaica, continuing to Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela. Delta operated DC-8 aircraft from MSY to Havana continuing on to Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
and the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
until the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
. Delta service from MSY to Jamaica and Venezuela, including Maracaibo
Maracaibo
Maracaibo is a city and municipality located in northwestern Venezuela off the western coast of the Lake Maracaibo. It is the second-largest city in the country after the national capital Caracas and the capital of Zulia state...
and Caracas, and to San Juan, Puerto Rico, were discontinued gradually between the mid 1970s to 1980 as Delta refocused their strategy away from the Caribbean.
VIASA
Viasa
Venezolana Internacional de Aviación Sociedad Anónima , or VIASA for short, was the Venezuelan national airline between 1960 and 1997. It was headquartered in the Torre Viasa in Caracas. Launched in 1960, it was nationalised in 1975 due to financial problems, and re-privatised in 1991, with the...
served New Orleans in the 1960s, offering Convair 880 jet service to Venezuela.
Throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s Aviateca
Aviateca
Aviateca was the state-owned flag carrier of Guatemala, headquartered in Guatemala City. It is now a subsidiary of Grupo TACA.- History :The airline was established on 14 March 1945 as Empresa Guatemalteca de Aviación S. A., which was shortened to Aviateca. It was formed as the successor to...
, LACSA
Lacsa
Lacsa , is the national airline of Costa Rica and is based in San José. It operates international scheduled services to over 35 destinations in Central, North and South America. All international services are now operated by Grupo TACA...
, TAN
Tan
Tan can mean several things:* another word for tanbark* Tan * Tan or tangent, one of the main trigonometric functions* Tanning, the process of making leather from hides* Sun tanning, the darkening of skin in response to ultraviolet light...
/SAHSA
Sahsa
Servicio Aéreo de Honduras SA otherwise known as SAHSA Airlines was the national flag carrier airline of Honduras from October 22, 1945 to January 14, 1994...
and TACA
Grupo TACA
TACA is the trade name "brand" comprising a group of five independently IATA-coded and -owned Central American airlines, whose operations are combined to function as one and a number of other independently owned and IATA-coded regional airlines which code-share and feed the TACA brand system...
provided both nonstop and same-plane direct services to several Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
n destinations, including Belize City
Belize City
Belize City is the largest city in the Central American nation of Belize. Unofficial estimates place the population of Belize City at 70,000 or more. It is located at the mouth of the Belize River on the coast of the Caribbean. The city is the country's principal port and its financial and...
, Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
, San Pedro Sula
San Pedro Sula
San Pedro Sula is a city in Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country, in the Valle de Sula , about 60 km south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean. With an estimated population of 638,259 people in the main municipality, and 802,598 in its metro area , it is the second...
, Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa , and commonly referred as Tegus , is the capital of Honduras and seat of government of the Republic, along with its twin sister Comayagüela. Founded on September 29, 1578 by the Spanish, it became the country's capital on October 30, 1880 under President Marco Aurelio Soto...
, La Ceiba
La Ceiba
La Ceiba is a port city on the northern coast of Honduras in Central America. It is located on the southern edge of the Caribbean, forming part of the south eastern boundary of the Gulf of Honduras...
, Roatan
Roatán
Roatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja, is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan...
, San Salvador
San Salvador
The city of San Salvador the capital and largest city of El Salvador, which has been designated a Gamma World City. Its complete name is La Ciudad de Gran San Salvador...
, Merida
Merida
Places of the world named Mérida or Merida include:*Mérida, Spain, capital city of the Spanish Community of Extremadura*Mérida, Yucatán, capital city of the Mexican state of Yucatán*Merida, Leyte, a municipality in Leyte province in the Philippines...
, Cancun
Cancún
Cancún is a city of international tourism development certified by the UNWTO . Located on the northeast coast of Quintana Roo in southern Mexico, more than 1,700 km from Mexico City, the Project began operations in 1974 as Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR Cancún is a city of...
, and San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. TACA was even headquartered in New Orleans, before returning its headquarters to Central America in 1982. The networks of essentially all of the aforementioned defunct Central American carriers have, as of today, been absorbed into that of Grupo TACA.
Twice weekly seasonal New Orleans to Montego Bay nonstops via the Jamaica Shuttle/Casino Express
Xtra Airways
Xtra Airways is a charter airline based in Boise, Idaho, USA. The airline is certificated by the FAA to conduct Domestic, Flag and Supplemental operations with Boeing 737 aircraft.-History:...
(typically operated by chartered Boeing 727-200's or 737-300's) operated during most of the 1990s and into the 2000s.
Laker Airways
Laker Airways (Bahamas)
-History:Laker Airways was a US-registered airline based in the Bahamas to which Sir Freddie Laker lent his name and operational expertise. The airline was established in 1992 with financial assistance from Oscar Wyatt, a Texas oilman and business partner of Sir Freddie Laker. The initial fleet...
operated twice weekly seasonal B727-200 flights between New Orleans and Freeport, Bahamas in the early 2000s.
Vacation Express
Vacation Express
Vacation Express is a company which leases aircraft from charter airlines for operation on vacation flights throughout the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean....
operated twice weekly seasonal charters between New Orleans and Cancun for several years using a mix of B727-200, B737-200, B737-300, and MD-80 equipment; This service was suspended after the company decided to concentrate on selling seats on scheduled flights instead of chartering aircraft.
All international service into MSY was suspended while the FIS facility was closed post-Katrina. The facility reopened to an influx of chartered flights arriving from London, Manchester, Bournemouth, and Nottingham, UK - all carrying tourists in for Mardi Gras and set to depart aboard a cruise liner.
Return of scheduled international service
In an October 27, 2011 interview, airport director Ahmad confirmed that a new, yet-to-be-announced international destination from MSY would shortly be announced.On March 8, 2011, MSY was one of eight cities given approval for charter flights to Cuba. Flights are expected to begin before the end of 2011.
On July 14, 2010, Air Canada
Air Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and largest airline of Canada. The airline, founded in 1936, provides scheduled and charter air transport for passengers and cargo to 178 destinations worldwide. It is the world's tenth largest passenger airline by number of destinations, and the airline is a...
announced the resumption of daily nonstop service between Toronto and New Orleans, utilizing Bombardier CRJ-705 equipment (operated by Air Canada Express
Air Canada Express
Air Canada Express is a brand name under which four regional airlines operate feeder flights for Air Canada. They primarily connect smaller cities with Air Canada's domestic hub airports and focus cities, although they offer some point-to-point service. On April 26, 2011, it was reported that Air...
) with 2 classes of service. This route started on October 30, 2010.
On April 7, 2009, it was announced that AeroMexico would begin 6-times weekly nonstop flights between New Orleans and Mexico City on July 6, 2009, with the service operated by Aerolitoral dba AeroMexico Connect. AeroMexico made several changes to its US network in the spring of 2010, and MSY-MEX service was reduced to an intermittent 2-3 times weekly frequency in March of that year. Aeromexico removed the route from their reservation system in June 2010, and the last flight operated on July 26, 2010.
Terminals and concourses
Concourse A
Concourse A opened in 1975 and has 6 Gates: A1, A3, A5, A6, A7, A8. This concourse has been indefinitely closed to airline traffic.There are plans to convert Concourse A into airport offices as part of ongoing remodeling efforts to restructure the airport to eventually use a single TSA checkpoint and facilitate a new "mall" and concessions area in the current concourse D check-in space. The concourse's fate is under review as traffic growth has exceeded expectations and the concourse may be reopened.
Concourse B
Concourse B opened in 1975 and has 13 Gates: B1 - B13.Concourse B is eventually planned to be utilized only for charter operations, with its scheduled carriers (US Airways, AirTran Airways, and Southwest) migrating to Concourses C and D.
Concourse C
Excepting customs pre-cleared flights; all nonstop international arrivals are handled by Concourse C. This concourse also contains both common-use and overflow gates, available for infrequent services and charter flights as well. It was also remodeled in 2007 after the damage of the February 2006 tornado.Concourse C opened in 1991 and has 15 Gates: C1 - C12, C14 - C16
Concourse D
The newest concourse, D, opened in 1997 and houses a Delta Air Lines Sky Club, the sole such airline club remaining in Armstrong. A six gate rotunda had been built on the end of the concourse that is expected to open in November 2011. Due to this construction, some flights for Concourse D tenants Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines have been temporarily relocated to gates on Concourse C.Concourse D has 7 operating Gates: D1 - D6 and D8
Ground transportation
Bus service between the airport and downtown New Orleans is provided by Jefferson Transit bus E-2. The airport also features taxicab services furnished by third party operators that have fixed price schedules ($33 for first two passengers, $14 for each additional passenger) for rides to the city's Central Business District. All cabs serving the airport are required to accept credit cards for all services rendered.Airlines and destinations
Statistics
| Rank | City | Passengers | Carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Atlanta, GA |
582,000 | AirTran, Delta |
| 2 |  Houston, TX (Bush)George Bush Intercontinental Airport George Bush Intercontinental Airport, is a Class B international airport in Houston, Texas, serving the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area, the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Located north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and U.S. Highway 59... |
416,000 | Continental |
| 3 | Houston, TX (Hobby) |
276,000 | Southwest |
| 4 | Dallas, TX (DFW) |
230,000 | American |
| 5 |  Denver, CODenver International Airport Denver International Airport , often referred to as DIA, is an airport in Denver, Colorado. By land size, at , it is the largest international airport in the United States, and the third largest international airport in the world after King Fahd International Airport and Montréal-Mirabel... |
213,000 | Frontier, Southwest, United |
| 6 |  Charlotte, NC |
195,000 | US Airways |
| 7 | Dallas, TX (Love) |
182,000 | Southwest |
| 8 |  Chicago, IL (O'Hare)O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago Airport, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, United States, northwest of the Chicago Loop... |
165,000 | American, United |
| 9 |  Los Angeles, CALos Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually... |
132,000 | Delta, Southwest, United |
| 10 |  Baltimore, MD |
124,000 | AirTran, Southwest |
Cargo airlines
See also
- Louisiana World War II Army AirfieldsLouisiana World War II Army AirfieldsDuring World War II, the United States Army Air Force established numerous airfields in Louisiana for antisubmarine defense in the Gulf of Mexico and for training pilots and aircrews of USAAF fighters and bombers....
External links
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, official site