Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport - History

History

The airport was originally named after daredevil 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-8s, 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.