Orlando International began life as McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command bomber installation whose legacy survives in the airport code MCO. Civil airliners shared the runways from the 1960s as the 'Orlando Jetport at McCoy,' but everything changed when Walt Disney World opened in 1971 and transformed central Florida into the world's theme-park capital.
The Air Force departed in the mid-1970s, the city took over the field. In 1981 a striking new terminal opened, pioneering a layout of a central landside hall linked to airside satellite concourses by automated people movers.
Traffic exploded alongside the growth of Disney World, Universal and the convention industry, and Orlando eventually overtook Miami to become the busiest airport in Florida. The gleaming Terminal C opened in 2022, designed for international growth and expansion.
In 2023 Brightline's intercity trains began serving a station built directly into the terminal complex, linking the airport to Miami by rail. Today MCO is one of the largest origin-and-destination leisure airports in the world, a place where nearly every passenger is starting or ending a vacation rather than connecting.