MCOKMCO

Orlando International Airport

Orlando, United States · North America

North America America/New_York IVCA 58.3

170direct destinations

42airlines

4runways

3,659 mLongest runway

5,644Aircraft documented

1976opened

Orlando International Airport (IATA: MCO, ICAO: KMCO, FAA LID: MCO) is the primary international airport serving Orlando, Florida, located 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Downtown. In 2025, the airport served 57,675,573 passengers, making it the busiest airport in the state and the seventh busiest airport in the United States. The airport code MCO comes from the airport's former name, McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command installation, that was closed in 1975 as part of a general military drawdown following the end of the Vietnam War. The airport serves as an operating base for Breeze Airways, Frontier Airlines, and Southwest Airlines as well as a focus city for JetBlue. Southwest is the airport's largest carrier by passengers carried. The airport is also a major international gateway for the Florida region, with over 1,000 daily flights on more than 40 airlines serving over 170 domestic and international destinations. At 11,605 acres (18.1 sq mi; 47.0 km2), MCO is one of the largest commercial airports in terms of land area in the United States. In addition, the airport is home to a maintenance base for United Airlines. The airport was also a hub for Delta Air Lines until 2007.

Location

28.429°N, 81.309°O · 29 m s. n. m. (96 ft)

General data

CountryUnited States

CityOrlando

IATA codeMCO

ICAO codeKMCO

Coordinates28.429°N, 81.309°O

Elevation29 m s. n. m. (96 ft)

Time zoneAmerica/New_York

Runways4

Longest runway3,659 m

Opened1976

Direct destinations170

Passengers per year57,675,573 (2025)

Official website Its quality in the IVCA Ranking

Runways · 4

18L/36R

Length3,659 m12,005 ft

Width61 m200 ft

SurfaceAsphalt

Lighted✓

18R/36L

Length3,659 m12,005 ft

Width61 m200 ft

SurfaceConcrete

Lighted✓

17R/35L

Length3,048 m10,000 ft

Width46 m151 ft

SurfaceConcrete

Lighted✓

17L/35R

Length2,744 m9,003 ft

Width46 m151 ft

SurfaceAsphalt

Lighted✓

Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.

Radio frequencies · 16 Official publication

Tower

118.450RWY 17L/35R, 17R/35L124.300RWY 18L/36R, 18R/36L

Ground

121.800SECT W126.400SECT E

Clearance delivery

134.700

ATIS (automatic information)

120.525DEP121.250ARR

Approach

119.400APP · DEP120.150APP · DEP124.800APP · DEP135.300APP · DEP123.850134.050128.375STAR128.675STAR

UNICOM

122.950

Look for a live feed on LiveATC External site; not every airport has a feed.

Frequencies from the official publication: FAA NASR, AIRAC 01 OCT 2026, checked on Oct 16, 2026. They change with each amendment: not for navigation without checking the current AIP. See the official publication In MHz.

History

Military years

The airfield was originally constructed as a U.S. Army Air Forces facility and military operations began in 1942 as Orlando Army Air Field #2, an auxiliary airfield to Orlando Army Air Base, now known as Orlando Executive Airport. Orlando Army Air Field #2 was renamed Pinecastle Army Airfield in January 1943. At the end of World War II, Pinecastle was briefly used for unpowered glide tests of the Bell X-1 from B-29 aircraft before the program moved to Muroc Army Airfield in California– now Edwards AFB – for the world's first supersonic flight. With the establishment of an independent U.S. Air Force in 1947, the airfield was briefly placed in caretaker status, until being reactivated during the Korean War as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) facility for B-47 Stratojets and KC-97 Stratofreighters and renamed Pinecastle AFB.

In the 1950s, the base began hosting SAC's annual Bombing and Navigation Competition. A B-47 Stratojet crashed during the 1958 competition, killing Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, commander of the 321st Bombardment Wing, which was the host wing for Pinecastle AFB. The following year the base was renamed for McCoy. The base later was home to the 306th Bombardment Wing operating the B-52 Stratofortress and the KC-135 Stratotanker. It was also used by EC-121 Warning Star early warning aircraft of the 966th Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron, a tenant unit at McCoy assigned to the Aerospace Defense Command.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, McCoy AFB became a temporary forward operating base for more than 120 F-100 Super Sabre and F-105 Thunderchief fighter bombers and the primary base for U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flying over Cuba. One of these U-2s was shot down by Soviet-operated SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles near Banes, Cuba. Its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson Jr., USAF, was the crisis' only combat death. Following the crisis, McCoy AFB hosted a permanent U-2 operating detachment of the 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing until 1973.

McCoy AFB was identified for closure in early 1973 as part of a post-Vietnam reduction in force. The following year, McCoy's 306th Bombardment Wing was inactivated, its B-52D Stratofortress and KC-135A Stratotanker aircraft reassigned to other SAC units and most of the McCoy AFB facility turned over to the city of Orlando by the General Services Administration (GSA) in late 1974 and early and mid 1975. USAF responsibility for the airfield's air traffic control tower was turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airport established its own crash, fire and rescue department, initially utilizing equipment transferred by the GSA.

Civil-military years

In the early 1960s, when jet airline flights came to Orlando, the installation became a joint civil-military facility.

Early jetliners such as the Boeing 707, Boeing 720, Douglas DC-8 and Convair 880 required longer and sturdier runways than the ones at Herndon Airport (now Orlando Executive Airport). Nearby lakes and commercial and residential development made expansion impractical, so an agreement was reached between the City of Orlando and the United States Air Force in 1962 to use McCoy AFB under a joint arrangement. The military offered a large AGM-28 Hound Dog missile maintenance hangar and its associated flight line ramp area in the northeast corner of the field for conversion into a civil air terminal. The city would then cover the cost of building a replacement missile maintenance hangar on the main base's western flight line. The new civil facility would be known as the Orlando Jetport at McCoy and would operate alongside McCoy AFB. This agreement became a model for other joint civil-military airports in operation today.

Airline flights to the Orlando Jetport began shortly after an agreement was signed by the city and USAF in October 1961. Over the next few years airline flights shifted from the old Herndon Airport (renamed in 1982 as the Orlando Executive Airport). In 1971 scheduled airlines were Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, National Airlines and Southern Airways.

The 1971 opening of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World led to a significant increase in air travel as Orlando became a major tourist destination. For much of the 1970s, Shawnee Airlines would directly link MCO with Walt Disney World using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter commuter aircraft. These connecting flights flew from MCO to the Walt Disney World STOL Airport, a small, short-lived airfield near the Magic Kingdom's parking lot.

What flies here

From our own logbook: 5,644 aircraft documented between 2006 and 2025.

5,644Aircraft documented

4,358,864Movements recorded

2006–2025Years on record

Types seen here

McDonnell Douglas MD-80256

Airlines with documented aircraft

Southwest Airlines 1,236 American Airlines 1,184 Delta Air Lines 1,000 United Airlines 965 JetBlue Airways 327 US Airways 293 Continental Airlines 276 Spirit Airlines 238 Frontier Airlines 219 Alaska Airlines 214

Busiest routes from here

ATLAtlanta88,305 flights JFKNew York42,971 flights EWRNewark38,619 flights CLTCharlotte32,731 flights PHLPhiladelphia18,084 flights DTWDetroit15,816 flights SJUSan Juan15,252 flights IAHHouston13,989 flights BOSBoston11,519 flights DFWDallas-Fort Worth10,938 flights

A count of our own aircraft profiles, year by year, from the public United States flight records: it reflects what we have documented, not the airport’s total traffic.

Airlines operating here · 42

Other airlines with direct routes

List taken from the airport’s own website (September 2026).

Photo: Dough4872 · Public domain · view original

Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

See all airports Search “Orlando”

Cite

To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.

This page was last updated on October 16, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 16). Orlando International Airport (MCO). Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/MCO

MLA

“Orlando International Airport (MCO).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 16 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/MCO. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Orlando International Airport (MCO).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/MCO.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Orlando International Airport (MCO). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/MCO (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_mco,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Orlando International Airport (MCO)}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-16},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/MCO},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/MCO}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/MCO |title=Orlando International Airport (MCO) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-16 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}