Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) traces its origins to a wartime air base on the outskirts of Kenner, Louisiana. The U.S. Army occupied the land through the end of World War II, and in May 1946, commercial service began at what was then called Moisant Field, named for aviation pioneer John Bevins Moisant, who died in a plane crash on the same land in 1910. The airport's IATA code, MSY, derives not from his name but from Moisant Stock Yards, the livestock operation that had occupied the site, a quirk that persists to this day. By January 1947, the airport was considered one of the largest commercial airports in the nation, covering 1,360 acres with four runways. It was also the first airport in the country to install an Instrument Landing System.

Sitting at roughly 4 feet above sea level, MSY ranks among the lowest-lying international airports in the world. That geography shapes everything. The airport lies 11 miles west of downtown New Orleans in Jefferson Parish, separated from the city by the suburban sprawl of Kenner and with no rail connection to the French Quarter or central business district. The airport served as a critical staging ground during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, evacuating more than 30,000 people. A new terminal complex, designed by architect Cesar Pelli and costing $1.3 billion, opened in November 2019, the first major replacement airport terminal in the United States in a decade. The crescent-shaped, 35-gate facility consolidated all operations onto the north side of the airfield and replaced the 1959-era terminal that had served the city for 60 years. Southwest Airlines leads in market share, with Delta, American, United, and several low-cost and ultra-low-cost carriers also operating from the single terminal.