MSY's New Terminal Offers Luxury, Convenience, and History
There's something in the air at MSY Airport. The recently constructed facility has all the perks and amenities to keep passengers terminally happy.
Some 19 million tourists come to New Orleans every year (the equivalent of the entire population of Chile, which, side note, has beautiful coastal towns), and a big chunk of them arrive via airplane. That means that MSY airport is what welcomes them to the Big Easy. It's their first impression of the city, and when New Orleans puts its best foot forward to greet its guests, that foot has two runways, a single terminal with three concourses, and 35 gates. It has over 8,000 parking spots in two garages and four lots, with tire-pumping stations and places to juice up your electric car.
MSY, whose official name is the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, has become not only a stopping-off point on the journey into New Orleans, but a destination in its own right. It's meant to be a little slice of the city. The airport's designers wanted to take a bit of the Crescent City and transport it 11 miles west of downtown to MSY.
With that goal in mind, they added several art installations and exhibits, jazz musicians performing on stages sprinkled throughout the terminal, and a design esthetic that aims to replicate the bends in the Mississippi River and the light shining through the local oak trees. The 40-plus shops and restaurants on-site incorporate New Orleans-based faves such as Cure, Café du Monde, Bar Sazerac, Dirty Coast, and Fleurty Girl.
Just Plane Impressive
MSY airport in its current iteration is a 972,000 square-foot, tri-level architectural wonder spread out over 1,500 acres (nearly double the size of Central Park).
There's all you need for before or after your trip, including free Wi-Fi, phone-charging stations, outlets galore at every gate, last-minute gifts for the people at home you'd forgotten about, and three nursing rooms for moms traveling with babies.
MSY has everything from shopping to shellfish to shoeshines. You can grab a drink or meal at one of the many bars and restaurants. Enjoy the views of the runway from most any vantage point, if watching planes taking off and landing is your thing. Nervous about flying? Duck into the meditation room to calm your nerves. Feeling stiff from a long trip crammed into a center seat? Stretch your legs while strolling through the spacious retail corridor in search of a crawfish t-shirt. There's even a spot for your furry traveling companion to do his business before takeoff, in a mini doggy park inside security.
Flying, Past: The History of MSY
The original New Orleans International Airport was built on land that used to be an air base during World War II. It opened to commercial flights in May 1946, quickly becoming one of the largest airports in the country. To honor famous New Orleans' native Louis Armstrong, his name was added to the airport moniker in 2001, the year that would have marked his 100th birthday.
The newfangled, cutting-edge terminal as we know it today opened on November 6, 2019—a $1.3 billion project that took four years from initiation to completion. It replaced the considerably older rendition of the airport, which had been constructed in 1959 and was in much need of a facelift.
MSY has seen passenger and flight numbers soar to impressive heights. From just 74 flights per week back in 1957, the airport saw almost 2,000 arrivals and departures weekly (280 daily) in November of 2022. And in 2019, MSY had a record-breaking year, welcoming well over 13.6 million passengers.
Why MSY?
Airport codes can be a rather odd bunch (think Perm, Russia, which goes by PEE, or the butt of airport jokes everywhere—Butler, Missouri, has been assigned the code BUM, and, of course, Oodnadatta, Australia's airport literally is ODD).
Other airport codes simply don't seem to correspond with the cities they're meant to represent—case in point, MDT means Knoxville, and GEG is, oddly, Spokane. If you've been racking your brain trying to figure out what MSY stands for and its connection to New Orleans (Minimal Sobriety Yonder? Marijuana Sought Yearningly? Music, Scenery, Yakamein?), let's finally clear the air about the airport.
MSY stands for Moisant Stock Yards, from which the name of the early airport, known as Moisant Field, was derived. Both were named after John Bevins Moisant, who was a fearless thrill-seeking aviator. He and the aluminum plane he built himself cruised the skies, whizzing their way through air shows, pulling off impressive air stunts, and leading a traveling flying circus of fellow daredevils.
Moisant's doomed career as a pilot soon crashed and burned when he flew his plane into a field in Kenner on New Year's Eve 1910, dying of a broken neck. To commemorate him and his untimely demise, they named the land where he rather roughly landed, and that later became the airport, Moisant Stock Yards
Passing Over to the Other Side
In most airports, the world beyond security is a very exclusive club with good food, strong drinks, and fancy bling (in the form of souvenir hoodies and pricey coffee mugs). Only select people are allowed in, and the bouncer at the door makes you remove your jacket and shoes and take the change out of your pockets.
Not at MSY. Thanks to their Guest Pass program, the post-security club has a fairly open-doors policy, so you don't need to be one of the cool kids to get in. You don't even need an airline ticket.
Only the third airport in the country to introduce such a program, MSY allows even those guests who aren't traveling to enter the heavenly realm beyond TSA's pearly gates. This allows anyone to eat, drink, or shop, where usually, only celestial beings come and go—both before and after they take to the skies. The program also helps the airport to attract locals to its billion-dollar doors.
There are certain limitations and regulations, however, and you'll still need to pass by the gatekeepers for screening, so leave your liquids and firearms at home (but interestingly, you can bring antlers, biological specimens, a microwave, or a live pet lobster through security, should that enhance your Guest Pass experience).
MSY is Ripe for Exploration
Whether you're coming or going, or a local looking for a new place to dine, it'd be a shame not to take advantage of all that MSY has to offer. That simply won't fly.
