A long term parking garage is available within walking distance of the Main Terminal. The rate is $2 for the first hour, and $2 for every half hour thereafter. There is a maximum daily rate of $12. The long term parking garage is accessible from Airline Drive and accommodates passengers who want to leave their vehicles on site.

Rather than circle the airport until a passenger arrives, the short term parking garage is located next to baggage claim and the main terminal, and has a low rate of $2 per hour. The airport offers more than 3,000 short term parking spaces, and there is plenty of room to accommodate oversized vehicles. New Orleans International Airport also offers a Cell Phone Lot. Located at the corner of Airline Drive and Hollandey Street, drivers are permitted to park for one hour until their passenger arrives.

Both of the long term parking and short term parking garages offer handicapped and disable parking. Handicapped parking spots are available in the first row of each parking garage. Several spaces are large enough to accommodate oversized vehicles and permit easy wheelchair access. The rate for both garages is $2 per hour, and $2 per every hour thereafter.

Airport Hotel Parking. Passengers can save money with off-site parking at airport hotels. Park-Sleep-Fly rates allow passengers to park their vehicles at discounted rates, or receive two weeks free parking with one night's stay at the airport's hotel. New Orleans International Airport shuttle provides free transportation from the airport hotel to the Main Terminal.

New Orleans International Airport is located approximately 11 minutes from Central New Orleans, and over 14 major airlines serve the airport. Operating airlines from New Orleans International Airport include Airtran, American, Continental, Delta, Express Jet, Jet Blue, Northwest, United, and U.S Airways. Southwest Airlines handle the bulk of passenger arrivals and departures.

New Orleans International Airport is easy to navigate and features one main terminal and four concourses: A, B, C, and D. The airport offers several on-site and off-site parking options, private ground transportation services, and courtesy vehicles. Several airport amenities are available to accommodate passengers with long layovers, which make the flying experience more enjoyable. Business Services and Conference Rooms are located in the ticket lobby and open daily from 6:00 A.M to 5 P.M. All payphones include data ports, which allow for easy Internet access, and banking services are available throughout the terminal.

The check-in and security screening process is relatively quick. However, if traveling to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, passengers are urged to arrive at the airport at least two hours before the scheduled departure.

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (IATA: MSY, ICAO: KMSY, FAA LID: MSY), formerly known as Moisant Field, is located at 900 Airline Drive, Kenner, Louisiana and is the primary commercial airport for the New Orleans metropolitan area and of southeast Louisiana. Sitting at an average of 4.5 feet above sea level, MSY is the second lowest lying international airport in the world, second only to Schiphol International Airport in The Netherlands, which sits at eleven feet below sea level[citation needed]. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, MSY served 9.7 million passengers per year, nearly all of them non-connecting. In 2007, it served 7,525,533 passengers, representing an increase of 21% over the previous year[2]. MSY has one of the best safety records among U.S. airports.[citation needed]

In February 2008, U.S. News And World Report ranked the travel experience at MSY 4th of the 47 busiest United States airports based upon the relatively few flight delays and lower flight loads.[3]

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport currently serves as a focus city for ExpressJet Airlines. The airport was once a major hub for Latin American travel from the United States. That travel mostly goes through other cities which serve as gateway hubs for international legacy-airlines. It opened after World War II, replacing the older New Orleans Lakefront Airport (which kept the NEW and KNEW airport codes, and now serves general aviation) as the city's main airport[citation needed]. The airport was renamed in 2001 after Louis Armstrong, a famous jazz musician from New Orleans. The National Weather Service forecast office for the area moved to the suburb of Slidell, and now uses non-airport codes LIX and KLIX.

MSY is owned by the City of New Orleans (Orleans Parish), but is primarily located in the city of Kenner, which is in neighboring Jefferson Parish. A small portion of the longest runway is located in unincorporated Saint Charles Parish.

The airport was originally named after daredevil aviator John Moisant, who died in an airplane crash on this land (which was devoted to farming at the time) in 1910. The abbreviation MSY was derived from Moisant Stock Yards, as the old airport kept NEW.[4]

Plans for Moisant Field were begun in 1940, as New Orleans' older Shushan Airport – now New Orleans Lakefront Airport (NEW), still serving private and corporate aircraft – was in need of expansion or replacement. With 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 of 1946.

On September 19, 1947, the airport was temporarily shut down as it was flooded under two feet of water by the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane.

Historically, Eastern Air Lines served MSY, including Boeing 727 Whisperjet service to Dallas, Tampa, and Miami, as well as New York City and Atlanta. Utilizing such aircraft as 727s, Douglas DC-8s, and DC-10s, National Airlines provided service to such cities as Miami, Amsterdam, Tampa, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. The current terminal was built in 1959.

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.

Pan Am Flight 759

On July 9, 1982, Pan Am Flight 759, en route from Miami to Las Vegas, departed New Orleans International. The plane took off from the east-west runway traveling east but never gained an altitude higher than 150 feet. The plane traveled 4,610 feet (1405 m), 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 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 decreased the headwind forcing the plane downward. Modern wind shear detection equipment, protecting flights from such conditions, is now in place at New Orleans International and most commercial airports.

Hurricane Katrina

The airport was closed to commercial air traffic on August 28, 2005, shortly before Hurricane Katrina 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." [1] In early September, the airport opened only to military aircraft and humanitarian flights, and served as a staging center for evacuees.

February 2006 tornado

At about 2:30 EST in the morning on February 3, 2006, a tornado touched down on the grounds of MSY. The damage from the tornado was significant but primarily confined to Concourse C, where American, 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. As of late 2006, all of this had been repaired.

MSY reopened to commercial flights on September 13, 2005; with four flights operated by Delta Air Lines to Atlanta, and Northwest Airlines to Memphis. Slowly, service from other carriers began to resume with limited service by Southwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, and American Airlines. Eventually, all carriers announced their return with limited service with the exception of Frontier Airlines, Midwest Airlines, America West Airlines (which merged into US Airways two weeks later) and international carriers Air Canada and TACA. Continental Airlines became the first airline to return to pre-Katrina flight frequency levels in early 2006, and in September 2006, they became the first major airline serving New Orleans to return to pre-Katrina seat capacity levels.

MSY served 7,525,533 passengers in 2007, or 77% of the all time high of 9,733,179 passengers who used Armstrong International in 2004. This represents growth of 21.0% over 2006 passenger numbers[2]. As of May 2008, MSY's operations will be at 80% of their pre-Katrina status, measured by airlines' daily seat-count. Eighty-six percent of daily roundtrip flights will have been restored at that point, as well as 93% the number of domestic cities served daily (scheduled) nonstop and 0% of international cities served (scheduled) nonstop. There will also be two scheduled once-weekly flights to two domestic cities.

Future Air Service

On August 4, 2008, Southwest Airlines will begin nonstop service to Denver International Airport. [5]

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 over 85% of pre-Katrina levels for a 12 month period. Airlines qualify for a waiver of landing fees for service to an airport not served from New Orleans for 12 months. 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 serviced by 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 of 2006, the airport opened a "cell phone lot" at the corner of Airline Drive and Hollandey Street across from the Airport Access Road; for 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 Int'l launched an $8 million maintenance campaign to clean and improve the environment, for guests arriving at and departing from the New Orleans region. 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 International has two terminals, East and West, connected by a central ticketing alley. Attached are four concourses, A, B, C, and D.