Florida Major Airports Overview

Florida has 21 airports offering commercial service, inside a statewide system of over 125 public-use airports and 11 military aviation facilities, according to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT Airports).

The FDOT Aviation Office in Tallahassee develops the Florida Aviation System Plan, promotes airport development, regulates airports and protects airport approaches, and its major activities include the aviation grant program (FDOT Aviation Office). Its Airport Data Viewer gives a slightly higher count, 128 public-use airports, and lists the office phone as (850) 414-4500 (FDOT Airport Data Viewer). Under Section 330.30(2), Florida Statutes, FDOT inspects public aviation facilities before licensing or license renewal, and the Aviation Office inspects them annually (FDOT Airport Data Viewer).

FDOT also points out that Florida is the only state with four large hub commercial airports, and that Orlando International began as McCoy Air Force Base, which is where the code MCO comes from (FDOT Aviation Office). The commercial airports span the Panhandle to the Florida Keys, from Pensacola International (PNS) in the west to Key West International (EYW) in the south (FDOT Airports).

One detail worth knowing: the FDOT Airports page says 21 commercial service airports but names only 19 of them, leaving out Lakeland Linder International (LAL) and Vero Beach Regional (VRB), both of which appear in the economic impact list on the FDOT Aviation Office home page (FDOT Airports; FDOT Aviation Office). The Airport Data Viewer names the 2022 Statewide Aviation Economic Impact Study, an update to the 2019 study, as the most recent FDOT airport economic impact study (FDOT Airport Data Viewer). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the FDOT Aviation Office website.

Orlando International (MCO) is the busiest airport in Florida, with 57,687,961 passengers over its last 12 months, ahead of Miami International (MIA) with 55,314,661 passengers in calendar year 2025 (MCO Traffic Statistics; Miami International Airport).

The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority traffic page averages 158,049 passengers a day over those 12 months, with 403,245 total aircraft operations and 45 airlines, and its newest monthly report is for August 2026 (MCO Traffic Statistics). The authority describes MCO as serving nearly 58 million annual passengers across Terminals A, B and C (Greater Orlando Aviation Authority).

Miami International split its 2025 traffic into 30,464,597 domestic and 24,850,064 international passengers, with 498,697 commercial aircraft movements (Miami International Airport). In its final 2025 rankings the Miami-Dade County airport places second among U.S. airports for international passengers and eighth for total passengers (Miami International Airport).

On the Gulf Coast, Southwest Florida International (RSW) in Fort Myers served more than 11.1 million passengers in 2025, which the Lee County Port Authority says places it among the top 50 U.S. airports for passenger traffic (Lee County Port Authority). Tampa International (TPA) competes in the Airports Council International group for airports serving 15 to 25 million passengers a year, where it ranked first among North American airports in the Airport Service Quality awards for the third year in a row, the Tampa airport announced on February 24, 2026 (Tampa International Airport).

Statewide, enplanements at 19 Florida airports totaled 27.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 2.8 percent from a year earlier, in preliminary VISIT FLORIDA estimates released by the Governor on February 20, 2026 (Executive Office of the Governor). The airport figures cover different periods: MCO posts a rolling 12 month total, MIA a calendar year 2025 total and RSW a 2025 figure given as more than 11.1 million.

Local public bodies run the large airports covered here: a Miami-Dade County department runs MIA, and local authorities run MCO and RSW (Miami International Airport; Greater Orlando Aviation Authority; Lee County Port Authority).

Miami International is operated by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department and is the property of Miami-Dade County government (Miami International Airport). It is funded through airline fees, concessions, parking and bonds backed by those revenues, and it does not receive direct funding from local taxpayer dollars (Miami International Airport). The airport's site lists the other Miami-Dade airports as Miami-Opa-locka Executive, Miami Executive, Miami Homestead General Aviation and Dade-Collier Training and Transition (Miami International Airport).

The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority operates Orlando International and Orlando Executive Airport (ORL). Its board approved an FY 2027 budget of $968,495,000 for MCO and $10,934,622 for ORL, and the authority states that the budgets include no local tax dollars (Greater Orlando Aviation Authority). Media questions go to its Office of Public Affairs at 407-825-2055 (Greater Orlando Aviation Authority).

Tampa International's newsroom gives its address as 4100 George Bean Parkway in Tampa and is published under a Hillsborough County Aviation Authority copyright (Tampa International Airport). The Lee County Port Authority runs Southwest Florida International and Page Field as a self-supporting enterprise fund that charges airport users for construction and operating costs (Lee County Port Authority). For West Palm Beach, the FDOT Airport Data Viewer lists Donald J Trump International Airport, code DJT, and the FDOT Aviation Office home page lists President Donald J Trump International Airport (FDOT Airport Data Viewer; FDOT Aviation Office).

Florida public-use airports and military aviation facilities contribute over $336 billion to the state economy and support over two million jobs, according to an FDOT Aviation Economic Impact Study announced in May 2023 (FDOT Aviation Office).

In 2021, the study data year, Florida attracted almost 122 million visitors, and 36 percent of them arrived at a Florida airport, and the study found that out-of-state visitor spending generated over $94 billion in economic impact (FDOT Airports). Florida airports directly employ over 18,000 people and are home to over 5,000 businesses, while off-airport air cargo activity supported almost 701,000 jobs and $150 billion in impact (FDOT Airports).

Airport by airport, FDOT counts 309,918 jobs tied to Orlando International (FDOT, MCO), 221,966 to Miami International (FDOT, MIA), 110,047 to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FDOT, FLL) and 82,136 to Tampa International (FDOT, TPA). Donald J Trump International in West Palm Beach accounts for 31,596 jobs and $1.5 billion in payroll (FDOT Airport Data Viewer).

The table above uses the FDOT Aviation Office list of total economic impact output for each Florida commercial airport (FDOT Aviation Office), and the FDOT Airport Data Viewer gives the same $41.4 billion for Orlando International under the 2022 Statewide Aviation Economic Impact Study (FDOT, MCO). The two official sources differ for Miami: Miami International puts the annual economic impact of MIA and the county's general aviation airports at $212 billion, with nearly 946,000 related jobs, while the FDOT figure for MIA alone is $35.3 billion in output and 221,966 jobs (Miami International Airport).

Miami International carried 24,850,064 international passengers in 2025, and the airport says it handles approximately 60 percent of all international visitors to Florida (Miami International Airport).

Freight at MIA totaled 3,405,322 U.S. tons in 2025, of which 2,889,025 tons were international, and the Miami-Dade airport ranks first among U.S. airports for international freight in its final 2025 rankings (Miami International Airport). FDOT adds that most flower imports in the United States arrive through Miami International (FDOT Aviation Office).

MIA listed 92 carriers in August 2026 and 164 nonstop destinations in September 2026, 67 domestic and 97 international (Miami International Airport). The airport says it offers more flights to Latin America and the Caribbean than any other U.S. airport, and its new airlines for 2025 and 2026 include Arajet to Santo Domingo and Punta Cana and Icelandair to Reykjavik (Miami International Airport).

Florida airport news in 2026 includes new Orlando budgets and an expanded MCO capital plan, which the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority board approved and announced on September 16, 2026 (Greater Orlando Aviation Authority).

The board approved an FY 2027 budget of $968,495,000 for MCO, and the updated MCO Capital Improvement Program adds a net $934.6 million in planned capital investments, including at least 7 new gates at Airside 2 (Gates 100 to 129), expanded parking and car rental facilities and new baggage handling facilities (Greater Orlando Aviation Authority). The board also approved an updated $94.6 million capital program for Orlando Executive, a net increase of $10.4 million, focused mainly on airfield improvements (Greater Orlando Aviation Authority).

At MCO, Terminal C connects to an Intermodal Terminal Facility with high-speed passenger rail service and has 100 percent automated screening lanes at its TSA checkpoints (Greater Orlando Aviation Authority). The MCO traffic page publishes monthly reports by airline, by gate and by destination (MCO Traffic Statistics). In Miami, the airport lists new year-round international routes for 2026 on American Airlines to Bimini in the Bahamas, Milan and Caracas (Miami International Airport).