The airport's original name was McCoy Air Force Base, after the base commander, Brigadier General Michael P. McCoy. It was renamed Orlando International Airport in 1978.
The airport is near Orlando, Florida's second-largest metropolitan area and its most popular tourist destination. The airport is the main hub for Frontier Airlines and a focus city for Allegiant Air. Southwest Airlines also uses Orlando as a point of interchange for international flights from other U.S. cities that do not have direct service to Central or South America. In 2015, it handled 44,006,224 passengers making it the thirteenth-busiest airport in the United States by passenger traffic and the busiest in Florida.