Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport - Kenner, LA
Posted by: 
denben
N 29° 59.778 W 090° 15.286
15R E 764831 N 3321548
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) is an international airport under Class B airspace in Kenner, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
Waymark Code: WM12WFD
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 07/26/2020
Views: 3
From Wikipedia: (
visit link) "MSY is owned by the city of New Orleans and is 11 miles (18 km) west of downtown New Orleans. A small portion of Runway 11/29 is in unincorporated St. Charles Parish. Armstrong International is the primary commercial airport for the New Orleans metropolitan area and southeast Louisiana.
MSY covers 1,500 acres (607 ha) of land. At an average of 4.5 feet (1.4 m) above sea level, MSY is the 2nd lowest-lying international airport in the world, behind only Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands, which is 11 feet (3.4 m) below sea level.
By the time the 1959 airport terminal building opened, the name Moisant International Airport was being used for the New Orleans facility. In 1961, the name was changed to New Orleans International Airport. In the summer of 2001, in commemoration of the centennial of Armstrong's birth (August 4, 1901), the airport was renamed Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
New terminal
Construction of the new terminal began January 2016, with Hunt-Gibbs-Boh-Metro listed as the contractor at-risk.The opening of the terminal was delayed four times. The original targeted completion date was May 2018, which would have been in time for New Orleans' 300th anniversary, but it was first delayed to October 2018. With the additional expansion the anticipated opening date was moved to February 2019 so that the entire complex could open at once. Due to a main sewer line issue, the opening of the new terminal was further pushed back to May 2019. In April 2019 the opening was further delayed until Fall 2019. The facility finally opened on November 6, 2019.
One reason for the delay in opening the new terminal was lack of dedicated interstate access to the new facility. New flyover-style interstate exits did not begin construction until shortly before the terminal opened and aren't expected to be completed until 2023. Until then, the current interstate exit closest to the new terminal, Loyola Drive, has been expanded to handle the increased traffic.
The plans also call for demolishing concourses A, B and C of the existing southside terminal complex, while repurposing concourse D for charter services and administrative offices. The old terminal has 34 gates but only used 30 gates; the new terminal is designed for 35 gates, with an option to expand to 42."
We had the chance to discover the new terminal in January / February 2020, during our cruise departing from New Orleans.