New Orleans Airport is a busy international hub located in Kenner Louisiana. Its official name is Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY). The airport is located eleven miles west of the Central Business District in downtown New Orleans. This vibrant city in the south has always been one of the most popular cities for tourists from around the country who visit for well-known events such as the Jazz and Heritage Festival, Mardi Gras, and the French Quarter Festival. As a result, the New Orleans International Airport regularly handles millions of passengers a year Even shortly after the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which certainly took its toll on the airport just as it did most of the city, MSY was back up and running and is now almost back up to its record capacity of travelers (nearly 10 million in the year before Katrina).

New Orleans International Airport has three runways and is proficient from years of experience moving millions of passengers in and out of its gates. At one point, it did more international traffic that it does now as a result of airlines having to reroute planes and schedules when MSY became unusable after the hurricane. It still offers some international flights, but whereas at one time you could choose from a wide range of international destinations that you could get to directly from New Orleans, now there are only a select few. It is thought that New Orleans Airport will ultimately return to its full international flight schedule, but for now the roster of cities has been diminished a bit.

This does not, however, mean that the services or facilities have at all suffered at the airport. If you are planning a trip to New Orleans or are searching for flights that depart from MSY, you should know that a full range of services are available to you. After all, Louis Armstrong International Airport is consistently ranked in the top ten of the busiest airports in the United States.

New Orleans Map

If you are traveling through Louis Armstrong International Airport you will find a range of services from duty-free shops to restaurants and gift stores. There are also currency exchange kiosks and ATMs. As one of the busiest international airports in the U.S., New Orleans International Airport is well equipped to handle the needs of just about any traveler. Airport shuttles can be found on the lower level and it is just a short airport shuttle or taxi ride into the city where you can enjoy the best that New Orleans has to offer from the distinctive cuisine and music to the amazing shopping and entertainment in places like Jackson Square and the Garden District.

For those interested in finding out why New Orleans Airport is known by the symbol MSY, it stands for Moisant Stock Yards after an aviator by the name of John Moisant who tragically wrecked his plane into the then stock yards that are now the site of the current airport. It has a long history of surviving challenging conditions. The airport is only around five feet above sea level and hurricanes and flooding have been issues that the airport has head to deal with for years.