Traditional modulation transfer function (MTF) detection method not only relies on artificial targets or typical ground targets, but also suffers from large atmospheric interference and a long detection cycle. Based on the traditional method, an on-orbit MTF detection method based on airport targets is proposed to analyze the characteristics of atmospheric interference in the detection process and to provide the MTF compensation method. The feasibility of rapid on-orbit MTF detection is explored by using large and medium-sized airports distributed in many places around the world as detection targets. Furthermore, a validation test of rapid on-orbit MTF detection is conducted using a total of 12 data sets from nine airports around the world. For example, an average deviation of 0.017 is used from the official MTF detection result in the 560 nm band. Under the condition of thin aerosol optical thickness, the feasibility of on-orbit detection of airport target MTF and validation of the rapid on-orbit detection method of MTF are conducted for four airports using Sentinel-2 multispectral images as test objects and compared with the official Sentinel-2 satellite MTF detection results. Specifically, the average absolute deviation of the two results is less than 0.04. Hence, the method can realize the high-frequency detection of MTF indices in a short period of time. This in turn eliminates the contingency of the results of a single detection and improves the reliability and stability of the detection results.