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Orlando International Airport (IATA: MCO, ICAO: KMCO, FAA LID: MCO)[3] is a major international airport located six nautical miles (11 km) southeast of the central business district of Orlando. It is the busiest airport in the state of Florida.[4]

The airport serves as a secondary hub for AirTran Airways and a focus city for Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Allegiant Air[5]. The airport hosts AirTran's corporate headquarters and operations center, though the airline maintains its main hub of operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Southwest Airlines is currently the airport's largest carrier in terms of passengers traveled; SWA carried one-fifth of all passenger traffic at MCO in 2006.[6]. On February 1, 2010, MCO became a focus city for low-cost airline Allegiant Air, who moved operations from Orlando Sanford International Airport in order to be closer to top Orlando attractions such as Walt Disney World[7].

In 2008, Orlando International Airport was the 22nd-busiest in the world by passenger traffic with 35,622,252 passengers. It was the largest and busiest airport in Florida until Miami International Airport surpassed it in October 2009.

The airport code MCO stands for the airport's former name, McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) installation named for Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, USAF, commander of the 321st Bombardment Wing at the then-Pinecastle Air Force Base. Col McCoy died in the crash of a B-47 Stratojet during the annual Strategic Air Command (SAC) Bombing and Navigation Competition that was held at the base in 1957.