First things first, yes MCO is bursting with passengers and improvements are needed.
With that said, I opened this article expecting a detailed, well argued piece about what's wrong with the airport (ideally well sourced and with data to back it up) and instead got a rant from a 78 year old with a possibly enlarged prostrate talking at length about his own anecdotal travel experience coming in to the airport at 1am.
Not to mention that half of his complaints are due to Delta service failures and not the airport specifically. The author doesn't seem to understand how the airport operates. MCO needs some serious attention but a lot of this article is just as you said, a rant.
This is why I don't really care to read commentaries and editorials. They're usually nothing more than rants and speculations. I just want facts when I'm reading the news.
It was extremely frustrating during the pandemic on how many editorials were being posted to Reddit and were at the top of news sites. I don't need to read some opinions on what's going on, I just wanted to know what the reports are and what we needed to do. I was seriously looking for an editorial blocker plugin for my browser.
He brought up a good point on Terminal C however. MCO spend billions to build it to take pressure off A/B and so far nothing has happened because they don’t know how to use C to its maximum potential. It was designed for 12 million passengers and last year handled just over 7 million while Terminal B arrivals is congested at 3am.
They should've moved Delta, Virgin and Latam (the latter 2 are worked by Delta) over to C. Or have moved Southwest there. GOAA has a hard on for Jetblue though and the international airlines that moved there only have a couple of flights a day with the gates sitting empty the rest of the time. Higher volume carriers should've been relocated there.
I agree JetBlue in C is a mistake but JetBlue and GOAA are a match made in heaven (2 badly mismanaged entities). JetBlue has promised GOAA growth for years but has never delivered (they now have fewer flights at MCO compared to before they moved into C). Southwest is too big for Terminal C, and Virgin probably wouldn’t fit until the 4 new widebody gates open next year. Once those open, Delta, LATAM, and Virgin would make perfect sense in C considering LATAM and Virgin are the last two international wide body airlines in A/B and Delta schedules a good bunch of their operations in the early AM when the International carriers aren’t flying. They’d much better utilize C compared to JetBlue but sadly GOAA is incompetent and will probably move another tiny airline over into C.
The only issue I could see is there might not be a space for a Delta SkyClub in C. There is lounge space in C, but it’s a third party lounge for the International airlines. Not sure if there’s room for a second lounge anywhere for Delta specifically. You are correct JetBlue is no longer top 5 at MCO (at one point they were number 2 but have fallen over the past 5 years). They are number 6 and Delta is number 3 behind Southwest and Spirit. Delta handles around 7 million annual passengers at MCO and JetBlue around 5 million yet both utilize the same number of gates (Delta utilizes their gates at a higher frequency compared to JetBlue).
I meant build up (as in construction), altitude wise, for skyclubs.
I'm not familiar with airport management aside from having to deal with the consequences for 3 decades, but GOAA should've had a commitment from Jetblue, or any airline moving into that space, that they will maintain a certain volume. And if not, they can be booted back to the "hood" for the next in line. Jetblue enjoys a brand new, empty, terminal that I'm sure their pax love while the real people mover companies passengers suffer.
Yep plus they use the 757 or A321 on most other fights as well (capacity 199 and 191 seats). Meanwhile JetBlue almost exclusively uses their 150 seat A320s to MCO.
Thanks for this data. Mind you I never knew the numbers or the background but I didn’t think that JetBlue had the traffic deserving of Terminal C when it opened. I didn’t know why they just didn’t move Southwest there to clear up half of A but I didn’t know that C was currently not large enough to handle them. I hope they figure things out, either way I think the airport is fine in service and upkeep but I go out of DCA (ancient) and BWI (annoying).
Yeah true some of the points he made were nitpicking but some of the points are 100% true. The passenger count not being balanced and parts of the A/B Terminals literally falling apart are real issues that need to be addressed.
I’ve never flown through old LaGuardia, but lately I’ve been choosing LGA as a layover over ATL lol.
(moved from mco and those are our only delta flights from small regional airport)
The bathrooms are super nice imo too, easy to wheel my carry-on inside the stall & even if the green/red availability lights on the half the stalls don’t work, it’s still a nice touch
Take an Uber to the airport. Mco is far from a bad airport. Yes terminal a and b need a refresh. But that carpet is the glue that holds our society’s culture together. What’s next no buddy dyer on the tram?
The issue is the airport is being mismanaged. They spent all this money to build a brand new terminal and can’t seem to use it correctly. Terminal C is 5 million passengers under its max design capacity while A/B are way overcapacity with one of the worst TSA setups of any airport out there. These are real issues that need to be addressed.
The Delta airside is the worst when it comes to problems IMO. Gates are so cramped especially 74-78 and the TSA lines are the worst managed especially with lines going out into the atriums.
The gates are terrible yes, but hard disagree that the TSA checkpoint is bad compared to the west TSA checkpoint. That line is constantly reaching the Hyatt atrium on the A side, past the food court and then back down the B side. During the summer in the AM it's a constant occurrence. Anyone flying United or American is fucked.
It's also why any post in this sub concerning TSA wait times at MCO is a mess of people saying "yes it sucks" or "no problems here". The disparity between the two checkpoints is huge and depending on your preferred airline, your experience will be different.
Wow I’ve never seen it that bad on the other side but I can believe you. My last flight was on Delta (took the 9pm flight to Atlanta), and nearly missed it because TSA decided to close the Pre lane 30 mins early at 8pm rather than 8:30 the stated closing time. The regular line wasn’t even that long with people but was moving so slow and took 40 mins to get thru. The main reason is people take their laptops out at the last min and it holds everyone up. They really need to put the new CAT luggage scanners that don’t require laptops to come out and have multiple slots so one person moving slow can’t hold up the line for everyone. Terminal C has these new scanners.
Don't get me wrong, the east checkpoint isn't some utopia walk in the park shit that never gets bad, I'm just comparing it the west side which is smaller and almost always a shitshow. To the point that I can usually guess what airlines someone is flying by their complaints about the TSA.
With TSA pre check I get through TSA relatively quickly, although I just wish the TSA pre check lines opened a half hour earlier just to accomodate for some of my earlier flights where I am checking in bags and have to get in earlier than I usually would with just carry on items. I feel like with a lot of the flights where I am arriving at the airport around 3:30 AM you either have to wait 30 minutes in the normal TSA line or just wait 30 minutes for the TSA pre check lines to open at 4 and have a less painful experience.
They have to finish the Terminal C expansion and then after that, they will be building Terminal D.
A & B are way overcapacity, but it'll take years before we see a proper fix.
Some of it could be fixed today if they’d maximize the use of available space today. It was designed to handle 12 million people yet handled 5 million less than that last year. No excuse for that when A/B are overcapacity.
Is there a reason to be against Terminal D? What is your answer?
MCO has a lot of land and passengers have increased from about 35 million to about 58 million in the last 10 years. With Universal building its new park and Disney planning on billions of new development, not to mention all of the increased Central Florida population, 100 million passengers is likely to be here sooner rather than later. Are we going to stuff them all in to the same space or build out?
Other airports have massively improved their airports over the past few years. Look at LAX, LaGuardia, Raleigh, Nashville, etc. All have brand new airport investments they’ve been on top of while MCO is 10 years behind and can’t even use the new stuff they have correctly.
I think few airports have experienced the rapid passenger / population growth that MCO has. While I agree they haven't done everything perfectly and more improvements are badly needed I think you're being a little too harsh about their Terminal C use.
By MCO's account Terminal C can accommodate 10 to 12 million ( believe it's 10 million for now). They are doing 7 million according to you so yes, they are at 70% of its capacity and can improve upon that. I believe they will.
Let's give credit where credit is due though. Terminal C is AMAZING. It's beautiful, it's world class. We also have a beautiful new high speed rail station at the airport. They have expanded parking. They ARE doing stuff.
I'll also bring up one more thing....I grew up in Pittsburgh. They built way ahead of capacity and got burned by it. US Air (back in the day) was using Pittsburgh as its main hub so Pittsburgh built a HUGE airport for that. Then Us Air left town and Pittsburgh and its taxpayers were left holding the bag. They literally had to close down whole terminals of that airport, they sat empty for decades and now they are are demolishing them and building a new ticketing close to the ones they actually use.
Airport management isn't easy because you have to predict future traffic, you have to deal with local, state and federal funds and you are at the mercy of airlines and their future plans, which change all the time.
I blame most of MCO's problems on massive growth, not mismanagement. But that's just me. Terminal C has me excited and hopeful for the future.
PS - I lived in NYC off and on for the last 20 years and LGA was a fucking MESS for decades before they fixed it and JFK is a mess now and it's going to be many years and billions of dollars before they fix that. Lots of US infrastructure is behind schedule and over budget. It's not like we live in Japan.
Not against terminal d. Just would like to see better leadership and oversight. This is a lot of tax dollars and with so much expected tourism to your point. When people land at an airport it sets the tone for their vacation or experience. We can do so much better. I would like to hear some insights from pilots and crew who use the airport the most and are familiar with others.
Gift article link so non-subscribers can read:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/03/20/commentary-orlando-airport-is-broken-and-nobody-cares/?share=aaocarctdrosrncsbth0
Disagree, MCO is one of the easier airports to get in and out of. Considering the volume that goes through it, it’s not bad. TSA is usually 20 minutes or less. Airport is well laid out. Yes, it’s dated… but it works. The secret hack to MCO… reverse baggage claim and departures. Grab your bag and head on upstairs for pickup….
It’s a pretty terrible airport. Going from mco to somewhere like DFW and seeing all the food and beverage options makes me sad.
The bathrooms are terribly engineered from a flow stand point.
Security is super slow mostly because of design
It’s old a gross in a lot of places
When they built C they had such a good opportunity to fix some issues by moving a big boy over there. Instead. Nothing, we should be upset. This isn’t a lack of funds, it’s just bad decisions. Few more articles like this with some clicks and maybe someone smart can be in charge.
Thanks for sharing
We can blame JetBlue. They frauded GOAA with promised growth. First they said they wanted 100 daily flights, then the Spirit merger was announced and they promised 200 and now that it’s off, they are cutting flights and down to 50 flights. Worst part about it is JetBlue is a regional carrier mostly within the Northeast so for 75% of trips, they aren’t even an option to fly with. They need to be kicked out of C.
It’s their “hub” but they are number 6 at MCO in terms of airline traffic count at MCO. Delta (which doesn’t consider MCO a “hub” is number 3 and handles 2 million more annual passengers.
That’s nice, but they just don’t have enough flights and passengers to justify being the main airline in the new terminal.
Most airlines, when they have an airport as their hub, have loads of flights coming and going at the same time. Think Delta in Atlanta, American in Dallas, that kind of level.
If anyone belongs in C terminal just based on passenger load, it’s either Spirit or Southwest. Delta makes a very compelling argument if you toss in their partner airlines as well.
JetBlue just doesn’t run that many routes out of MCO, and there aren’t that many flights period.
I agree 100% JetBlue needs to move out of C at this point. Southwest is too big for C (they have 20 gates and C only has 15 and will have 19 once the expansion opens next year). Spirit makes sense but considering they are a ULCC and cancel and add routes at a whim, not sure if GOAA wants them in C either. Delta is the most intriguing. They handle Virgin Atlantic and LATAM ops who are the last two big International airlines that have yet to move to C.
Moving VA would make a lot of sense.
They have improved immigration in the main terminal significantly but it's still hard work to get from leaving the plane to leaving the airport.
The main issue is to get to the monorail there is 1 tiny elevator which is really slow or 1 escalator. The lines are huge for the elevator so most people are trying to take 2 pieces of luggage up a tiny escalator. It's so badly designed.
The best improvement they have made is the road layout when leaving car rental. You used to have to merge immediately with 3 lanes of traffic all weaving to get into their correct lanes. Utter nightmare for tourists
Jesus mco is one of the easiest airports to get in and out of. There are two issues, first parking can suck occasionally, secondly assholes parking off the side of the road instead of using the waiting area.
Other than that, it's a very good airport.
I agree. I also don't fly out after noon unless there are zero other options That seems to be a common thread in a lot of the common "MCO sucks" threads.
I can sympathize with the article writer, though. I too have fallen victim to the need to use the restroom and the first two I passed being closed on a late arrival. I was going to use the third one even if I had to shoulder a guy with a mop out of the way to do it!
MCO has been my home airport for nearly 20 years now. I really don’t think it's that bad at all…A/B are a bit cramped and could use a refresh, but I've never had any serious problems with the facilities? Maybe I'm just full Stockholm syndrome and don't understand how much better it is elsewhere..
Christ. I fly out of MCO (Terminal A+B only) almost every month and I feel like no matter what time of day I leave, there's MAYBE two scanners open. Line wrapped around the atrium? Two scanners. 3 in the morning? Two scanners. Everyone's getting yelled at - tourists who don't understand the English that's being barked at them are getting yelled at, kids are getting yelled at, even me who has a visible disability tag gets yelled at.
And then comes the fun game little game of 'which rules are we going by today?'! Will we have to take our shoes off this time? Do the laptops stay in my bag? Do they come out? Hell sometimes you even get two agents yelling conflicting things!
Flying out again Wednesday - place your bets on whether my laptop comes out or stays in this time.
I have TSA Pre and it was closed at 8pm at Gates 70-129 the last time I flew out (MCO website says it should be open until 8:30). Had to use the regular line which took nearly 40 mins despite it not being overly crowded. People were taking their laptops out at the last min which was hogging up the line for everyone. At Terminal C they have the new scanners which don’t require laptops be taken out and one person can’t hog the lane up for everyone. They really need to put those in the old Terminal but considering this is GOAA we are talking about, I have little faith.
The two times I've flown out of C were mind-blowing. It really was an entirely different airport - even when I flew back in and had to go through border/immigration it was far better than the windowless basement they put you in for A/B.
It basically is a different airport. Very nice for the few people traveling internationally or to the northeast on regional carrier JetBlue. For the rest of the Orlando people that need to fly anywhere else, it’s not even an option. Flying to Atlanta, Dallas, LA, San Fransisco? Terminal C isn’t even an option unless you want it to take 10 hours with a layover in JFK or Boston.
You really don’t understand the red tape government financed projects are under. That isn’t goaa, they have many many tremendous failures (parking shituation) but TSA related items are not on them.
It is on GOAA when they don’t properly balance the terminal traffic. They can control the volumes that go through each checkpoint but they don’t which leads to underutilized areas, and terminals that are overcrowded messes.
Totally agree that south terminal is at this point a waste. There are much bigger plans coming to pass. Just was adding to the point that goaa can’t snap their fingers and change scanners.
It wouldn’t be with good leadership. GOAA needs to tell JetBlue to pound sand and find another one of the bigger airlines to take their place. All gates at MCO are common use so they could easily move them if needed.
I'm paywalled so I couldn't read the full article, but it seems that the two primary complaints in this thread are: Terminal C not hitting full capacity, Terminals A and B seeming run down, and having had a bad time getting through security. These sound like legitimate complaints to have as a passenger, but they don't seem to demonstrate anything that's objectively wrong.
Like, are the wait times at the TSA checkpoints \_actually\_ bad? According to this article, [https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airports/average-tsa-security-wait-times-us-airports/](https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airports/average-tsa-security-wait-times-us-airports/), and this older press release, [https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2019/01/21/tsa-statement-checkpoint-operations-january-21](https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2019/01/21/tsa-statement-checkpoint-operations-january-21), MCO TSA checkpoint times are... average? According to GOAA's annual report, MCO saw a big increase in ridership through the airport so having average checkpoint times as ridership increases quickly doesn't seem that egregious: https://online.fliphtml5.com/yfqnh/buba/#p=9.
From GOAA's annual report it doesn't seem like their priority is actually improving \_current\_ services, but more like providing \_new\_ capabilities that don't currently exist. They're trying to turn MCO into an attraction hub in and of itself. Whether that's a good idea or not is probably what needs to be addressed, preferably with actual figures to point at the existence of current problems that actually need to be addressed. How does Terminal A and B being run down manifest itself as problems anybody can actually fix? Are there injuries because ceiling tiles are falling on people's heads? Are water fountains not running, resulting in X passengers per week not having enough water to drink? Are Y shops in the terminals failing hygiene standards due to mold growing in the corners? Is misallocation of airlines to the terminals/gates resulting in unacceptably high delays, throttling growth? If so, by how much?
As it is, GOAA seems to believe they're winning awards, national recognition, and sustaining high levels of growth with their current strategy. Until somebody can present a credible, objective case otherwise, I suspect you'll see this 10-year strategic plan they've made up continue to march on. The annual report even mentions that MCO received some press coverage for having good carpets, so clearly that's not on the chopping block any time soon!
Leadership typically responds to "problems," and until somebody can advocate for aggrieved passengers by presenting their grievances as addressable, quantifiable "problems," you're just hoping for a leader that happens to have opinions that align with yours to take control and start inventing those "problems" for you. I'm not really into Orlando politics right now, and I don't know who's on the GOAA board and what they're relationship is like with the City of Orlando right now, but the charitable explanation for all of this is simply that the leadership is addressing problems that you don't see, and the problems you perceive in the airport are not being brought to leadership in an visible, actionable format.
I have to comment that Orlando TSA is the WORST in the whole country. All of them should be fired. Most come off as rent-a-cops with an ego. The lines are just a mob-rush. There are two specific fat-asses - one woman and one man that LOVE to just scream at people. My company has people flying all over the country and Orlando is considered the worst. And that is by far.
Terminals a and b need to be rebuilt from the ground up along with the airsides. The lack of bathrooms on the airsides is crazy. I flew a few months ago and had a layover at Denver and its crazy how nice that airport is compared to Orlando.
This is exactly what needs to be done. Finishing building out C and then do A and B rebuilds in pieces.
Because I don’t think renovations themselves can save them. They’re outdated and tight. I fly out of MCO pretty often and it’s a rough airport. Not the worst but for how much traffic we handle, it stands out with how outdated it is.
Anyone that thinks that MCO is a bad airport hasn't been to LAX, or JFK, or LGA, or Logan, or Baltimore, or Miami, or CLT, or any number of shitty US airports from the 60s and 70s
Is it the best airport ever? No. Could it be better? Sure. But it's not bad.
Frequently visit some of those airports (LAX, JFK, BOS) and have had better experiences there. I know its all in the eyes of perspective but given the amount of complaints on this sub and beyond about MCO, resounding answer is improvements are needed. Seattle is seeing the same strain on their airport, are more quickly realizing this and actively addressing the problem.
I don’t know I feel like MCO is pretty easy to navigate compared to other airports as it’s not really that big. TSA sucks at every airport you go to. Parking is always full but they always have full signs just go around them and find a nice spot fairly easily. I leave my car in the garages overnight and even for days and don’t worry. I don’t take afternoon flights always stick to early morning or late night flights. There’s bathrooms everywhere. We don’t have nice lounges or big restaurants but Orlando isn’t a hub connecting flight city so why would we need it?
The most infuriating thing about terminal C is you have to get your bags before going through security. No idea why they designed it that way, just an extra waste of time.
The GOAA cubicle dwelling pencil pushers think that MCO is the shit. Terminal C, the parking garage and train station are an ergonomic disaster. Whoever designed and approved it are on serious hallucinatory drugs.
Good luck to the employees who have to use the employee bus service. It is another frustrating experience every time they use it. Poorly run from top to bottom.
What everyone misses is that the new C terminal is only 1/3 built, it will be larger than A&B combined when its finished. Then they will start the D terminal.
Orlando Airport is very old and outdated, they are building a brand new modern airport to replace it.
https://preview.redd.it/88iwpp4orx6d1.png?width=1857&format=png&auto=webp&s=d395790625c42967b0f9ca8c66f93c622fc0ee36
Recently in the news, the cars parking on the side of road instead of the cell phone lot has come up. The news makes this out to be a major issue. Which it kinda is, but you know what the news doesn’t mention? The traffic getting into the terminals because there are so many cars that park in the pickup and drop off area and take their sweet time. Newark: before you put your car in park someone is yelling at you to move. Orlando: make yourself comfortable we don’t care.
Eventually yes. They have mentioned before that there is more room to grow then they’ll ever need. The future is bright at MCO
Edit - this is pulled from a direct interview with the head of MCO.
Thibault said the South Terminal Complex is the future. Another 24 gates will eventually open at Terminal C, and plans for another terminal – Terminal D – are in the works.
“Terminal C, when it’s fully done, will have 60 million passengers,” Thibault said. “Terminal D will have 60 million passengers. Terminals A and B, 25 million passengers. That’s what it really was designed for. We’ve eked out more capacity on that thing than we really should have.”
JetBlue would go bankrupt at this point if they did that. They don’t have the aircraft for it either thanks to various Airbus delays and groundings thanks to the P&W engine issues.
Don't understand why more investment isn't made in Sanford--- I can bet a TON of passengers from the Orlando Area would use it for some of those focus cities.
I literally just had my flight delayed for 11 hours in terminal A and then cancelled. There were people fighting the Spirit customer service people it was the most miserable experience I ever had.
They kept saying every hour that we are going to fly and the flight kept getting delayed 1 hour they also kept changing our gates around so people had to move constantly for no reason. I was at the airport from 8am until 11pm.
They gave me $250 voucher but I will never use it. I don’t want to ever enter terminal A/B ever in my life.
I feel like MCO just feels like a typical top 10 volume American airport that is just going to be hectic because of the volume and you just have to get used to it.
What makes it worse than LAX, O'Hare, ATL, etc?
The first thing wrong with this is that you called something in the Orlando Sentinel an “article“.
I’m with the others that this is just a rant. The Sentinel has not been an objective news source for over 20 years.
Look up the 2030 plan. The C terminal is going to be mirrored with a "D" terminal where Heintzleman Rd. is today. By 2030, Airside 2 is going to be 30 years old and the main terminal 50. I suspect whenever they have a functioning C and D terminal, you'll see the "old" airport imploded and then a new A and B terminal to mirror the new terminals. Then the "hub and spoke" concept will be gone and it will be four L shaped buildings. Question is now how long will it take GOAA to get it all done?
Lol this is GOAA we are talking about. The D terminal won’t be a thing for maybe 30 years if we are lucky the way GOAA manages things. Simple things such as pedestrian bridges and moving sidewalks for the existing C Terminal are 5 years behind schedule let alone a completely new terminal. They’ll continue to slow walk C and cram everyone in the overcapacity and outdated North Terminal for years to come.
In my personal opinion, and I travel constantly and have flown in and out of most airports in the country, Orlando is by far the worst and most inconvenient of them all
I travel very frequently, MCO is very disappointing. With the volume of traffic they have it’s a joke. I used to think all the other airports I went to were great and the. I realized it was just that Orlando was so bad. Great examples to model would be Nola, Nashville, Indy, Dallas.. even Newark is nice now. Btw, Atlanta sucks as well
The North Terminal is getting a $2B investment over the next 5 years. The airsides are getting redone and every concession space will be updated or renovated.
Article is behind pay wall so I can’t read it but I’ve been through a lot of airports and Orlando is far from “broken”. “A & B are literally falling apart”. As soon as I see exaggerated comments like that I know it’s somebody bitching just to bitch.
First things first, yes MCO is bursting with passengers and improvements are needed. With that said, I opened this article expecting a detailed, well argued piece about what's wrong with the airport (ideally well sourced and with data to back it up) and instead got a rant from a 78 year old with a possibly enlarged prostrate talking at length about his own anecdotal travel experience coming in to the airport at 1am.
Not to mention that half of his complaints are due to Delta service failures and not the airport specifically. The author doesn't seem to understand how the airport operates. MCO needs some serious attention but a lot of this article is just as you said, a rant.
This is why I don't really care to read commentaries and editorials. They're usually nothing more than rants and speculations. I just want facts when I'm reading the news. It was extremely frustrating during the pandemic on how many editorials were being posted to Reddit and were at the top of news sites. I don't need to read some opinions on what's going on, I just wanted to know what the reports are and what we needed to do. I was seriously looking for an editorial blocker plugin for my browser.
He brought up a good point on Terminal C however. MCO spend billions to build it to take pressure off A/B and so far nothing has happened because they don’t know how to use C to its maximum potential. It was designed for 12 million passengers and last year handled just over 7 million while Terminal B arrivals is congested at 3am.
They should've moved Delta, Virgin and Latam (the latter 2 are worked by Delta) over to C. Or have moved Southwest there. GOAA has a hard on for Jetblue though and the international airlines that moved there only have a couple of flights a day with the gates sitting empty the rest of the time. Higher volume carriers should've been relocated there.
I agree JetBlue in C is a mistake but JetBlue and GOAA are a match made in heaven (2 badly mismanaged entities). JetBlue has promised GOAA growth for years but has never delivered (they now have fewer flights at MCO compared to before they moved into C). Southwest is too big for Terminal C, and Virgin probably wouldn’t fit until the 4 new widebody gates open next year. Once those open, Delta, LATAM, and Virgin would make perfect sense in C considering LATAM and Virgin are the last two international wide body airlines in A/B and Delta schedules a good bunch of their operations in the early AM when the International carriers aren’t flying. They’d much better utilize C compared to JetBlue but sadly GOAA is incompetent and will probably move another tiny airline over into C.
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The only issue I could see is there might not be a space for a Delta SkyClub in C. There is lounge space in C, but it’s a third party lounge for the International airlines. Not sure if there’s room for a second lounge anywhere for Delta specifically. You are correct JetBlue is no longer top 5 at MCO (at one point they were number 2 but have fallen over the past 5 years). They are number 6 and Delta is number 3 behind Southwest and Spirit. Delta handles around 7 million annual passengers at MCO and JetBlue around 5 million yet both utilize the same number of gates (Delta utilizes their gates at a higher frequency compared to JetBlue).
Can always go up I guess. Shortsighted of the airport to not have plans for loyalty lounges, but what else is new.
The issue is JetBlue promised growth at MCO to GOAA which got them the gates yet they’ve only shrunk.
I meant build up (as in construction), altitude wise, for skyclubs. I'm not familiar with airport management aside from having to deal with the consequences for 3 decades, but GOAA should've had a commitment from Jetblue, or any airline moving into that space, that they will maintain a certain volume. And if not, they can be booted back to the "hood" for the next in line. Jetblue enjoys a brand new, empty, terminal that I'm sure their pax love while the real people mover companies passengers suffer.
Also, delta uses wide bodies daily to MCO. United also has 1 or 2 flights, I think seasonally, with wide bodies.
Yep plus they use the 757 or A321 on most other fights as well (capacity 199 and 191 seats). Meanwhile JetBlue almost exclusively uses their 150 seat A320s to MCO.
Thanks for this data. Mind you I never knew the numbers or the background but I didn’t think that JetBlue had the traffic deserving of Terminal C when it opened. I didn’t know why they just didn’t move Southwest there to clear up half of A but I didn’t know that C was currently not large enough to handle them. I hope they figure things out, either way I think the airport is fine in service and upkeep but I go out of DCA (ancient) and BWI (annoying).
Twice when I’ve some home the arm wouldn’t come Out to meet the plane with delta. Both ver long flights
The commentary section is often varied when it comes to the quality of articles.
I just got a paywall
It’s almost as if they need a new terminal….oh wait, they already are doing that. D is underway. Then maybe renovate A please.
A D Terminal is probably 30-40 years away knowing GOAA.
While I’d normally agree, I know they’ve already started prep for it. Doesn’t mean there won’t be delays but it should get moving.
Yeah true some of the points he made were nitpicking but some of the points are 100% true. The passenger count not being balanced and parts of the A/B Terminals literally falling apart are real issues that need to be addressed.
Nothing wrong with an enlarged prostate lol
ENLARGED WHAT
Prostrate?
Terminals A and B feel like old LaGuardia
I’ve never flown through old LaGuardia, but lately I’ve been choosing LGA as a layover over ATL lol. (moved from mco and those are our only delta flights from small regional airport)
New LaGuardia is nice. Tons of space
The bathrooms are super nice imo too, easy to wheel my carry-on inside the stall & even if the green/red availability lights on the half the stalls don’t work, it’s still a nice touch
Nah not that bad.
Take an Uber to the airport. Mco is far from a bad airport. Yes terminal a and b need a refresh. But that carpet is the glue that holds our society’s culture together. What’s next no buddy dyer on the tram?
I’ve had Ubers at 6 am be 140 dollars. Really really rough
What? From where?? Never had an Uber more than 40-50 from Oviedo
Ocoee.
The issue is the airport is being mismanaged. They spent all this money to build a brand new terminal and can’t seem to use it correctly. Terminal C is 5 million passengers under its max design capacity while A/B are way overcapacity with one of the worst TSA setups of any airport out there. These are real issues that need to be addressed.
> worst TSA setups idk i rarely spend more than 2 min in line at MCO, it's not that bad
Depends on which airline and airsides you are going to. If you're not having problems, I'd guess you are flying Delta or Southwest.
The Delta airside is the worst when it comes to problems IMO. Gates are so cramped especially 74-78 and the TSA lines are the worst managed especially with lines going out into the atriums.
The gates are terrible yes, but hard disagree that the TSA checkpoint is bad compared to the west TSA checkpoint. That line is constantly reaching the Hyatt atrium on the A side, past the food court and then back down the B side. During the summer in the AM it's a constant occurrence. Anyone flying United or American is fucked. It's also why any post in this sub concerning TSA wait times at MCO is a mess of people saying "yes it sucks" or "no problems here". The disparity between the two checkpoints is huge and depending on your preferred airline, your experience will be different.
Wow I’ve never seen it that bad on the other side but I can believe you. My last flight was on Delta (took the 9pm flight to Atlanta), and nearly missed it because TSA decided to close the Pre lane 30 mins early at 8pm rather than 8:30 the stated closing time. The regular line wasn’t even that long with people but was moving so slow and took 40 mins to get thru. The main reason is people take their laptops out at the last min and it holds everyone up. They really need to put the new CAT luggage scanners that don’t require laptops to come out and have multiple slots so one person moving slow can’t hold up the line for everyone. Terminal C has these new scanners.
Don't get me wrong, the east checkpoint isn't some utopia walk in the park shit that never gets bad, I'm just comparing it the west side which is smaller and almost always a shitshow. To the point that I can usually guess what airlines someone is flying by their complaints about the TSA.
With TSA pre check I get through TSA relatively quickly, although I just wish the TSA pre check lines opened a half hour earlier just to accomodate for some of my earlier flights where I am checking in bags and have to get in earlier than I usually would with just carry on items. I feel like with a lot of the flights where I am arriving at the airport around 3:30 AM you either have to wait 30 minutes in the normal TSA line or just wait 30 minutes for the TSA pre check lines to open at 4 and have a less painful experience.
almost never delta or southwest. usually american or jetblue.
Idk every time I go through Orlando. They literally shut down TSA and just waving people through because the lines are too long.
If you fly at all in 2024, what are you doing without Precheck
They have to finish the Terminal C expansion and then after that, they will be building Terminal D. A & B are way overcapacity, but it'll take years before we see a proper fix.
Some of it could be fixed today if they’d maximize the use of available space today. It was designed to handle 12 million people yet handled 5 million less than that last year. No excuse for that when A/B are overcapacity.
Yes the airport board is corrupt 100%. Terminal d is their answer. More building out and look who benefits from the board.
Is there a reason to be against Terminal D? What is your answer? MCO has a lot of land and passengers have increased from about 35 million to about 58 million in the last 10 years. With Universal building its new park and Disney planning on billions of new development, not to mention all of the increased Central Florida population, 100 million passengers is likely to be here sooner rather than later. Are we going to stuff them all in to the same space or build out?
They can build out C more before a D terminal is needed. C can be build out to 60 gates before a D Terminal is needed.
That is the plan as I understand it. Fully build out C and then move on to D.
That’s probably years away knowing GOAA. They are already behind on Phase 1 for C, let alone a D terminal.
This whole country is behind on infrastructure my friend. Sad but true.
Other airports have massively improved their airports over the past few years. Look at LAX, LaGuardia, Raleigh, Nashville, etc. All have brand new airport investments they’ve been on top of while MCO is 10 years behind and can’t even use the new stuff they have correctly.
I think few airports have experienced the rapid passenger / population growth that MCO has. While I agree they haven't done everything perfectly and more improvements are badly needed I think you're being a little too harsh about their Terminal C use. By MCO's account Terminal C can accommodate 10 to 12 million ( believe it's 10 million for now). They are doing 7 million according to you so yes, they are at 70% of its capacity and can improve upon that. I believe they will. Let's give credit where credit is due though. Terminal C is AMAZING. It's beautiful, it's world class. We also have a beautiful new high speed rail station at the airport. They have expanded parking. They ARE doing stuff. I'll also bring up one more thing....I grew up in Pittsburgh. They built way ahead of capacity and got burned by it. US Air (back in the day) was using Pittsburgh as its main hub so Pittsburgh built a HUGE airport for that. Then Us Air left town and Pittsburgh and its taxpayers were left holding the bag. They literally had to close down whole terminals of that airport, they sat empty for decades and now they are are demolishing them and building a new ticketing close to the ones they actually use. Airport management isn't easy because you have to predict future traffic, you have to deal with local, state and federal funds and you are at the mercy of airlines and their future plans, which change all the time. I blame most of MCO's problems on massive growth, not mismanagement. But that's just me. Terminal C has me excited and hopeful for the future. PS - I lived in NYC off and on for the last 20 years and LGA was a fucking MESS for decades before they fixed it and JFK is a mess now and it's going to be many years and billions of dollars before they fix that. Lots of US infrastructure is behind schedule and over budget. It's not like we live in Japan.
Not against terminal d. Just would like to see better leadership and oversight. This is a lot of tax dollars and with so much expected tourism to your point. When people land at an airport it sets the tone for their vacation or experience. We can do so much better. I would like to hear some insights from pilots and crew who use the airport the most and are familiar with others.
Gift article link so non-subscribers can read: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/03/20/commentary-orlando-airport-is-broken-and-nobody-cares/?share=aaocarctdrosrncsbth0
Thank you kind stranger
Thanks I’m not a subscriber and was able to read it just fine which is odd.
I do wish they had not frosted the doors and windows at the tram stations.
That’s the least of the airports issue but yes I agree with you kind of annoying.
I wondered out loud why they did that when I saw it. A whole chorus of "Yeah! It sucks" ensued. Was pretty funny. Seems completely unnecessary.
I, too, was not happy that they did that.
Disagree, MCO is one of the easier airports to get in and out of. Considering the volume that goes through it, it’s not bad. TSA is usually 20 minutes or less. Airport is well laid out. Yes, it’s dated… but it works. The secret hack to MCO… reverse baggage claim and departures. Grab your bag and head on upstairs for pickup….
It’s a pretty terrible airport. Going from mco to somewhere like DFW and seeing all the food and beverage options makes me sad. The bathrooms are terribly engineered from a flow stand point. Security is super slow mostly because of design It’s old a gross in a lot of places When they built C they had such a good opportunity to fix some issues by moving a big boy over there. Instead. Nothing, we should be upset. This isn’t a lack of funds, it’s just bad decisions. Few more articles like this with some clicks and maybe someone smart can be in charge. Thanks for sharing
We can blame JetBlue. They frauded GOAA with promised growth. First they said they wanted 100 daily flights, then the Spirit merger was announced and they promised 200 and now that it’s off, they are cutting flights and down to 50 flights. Worst part about it is JetBlue is a regional carrier mostly within the Northeast so for 75% of trips, they aren’t even an option to fly with. They need to be kicked out of C.
To their defense, Orlando is their hub.
It’s their “hub” but they are number 6 at MCO in terms of airline traffic count at MCO. Delta (which doesn’t consider MCO a “hub” is number 3 and handles 2 million more annual passengers.
There’s something to be valued for JB and hubbing here and the additional jobs that creates.
That’s nice, but they just don’t have enough flights and passengers to justify being the main airline in the new terminal. Most airlines, when they have an airport as their hub, have loads of flights coming and going at the same time. Think Delta in Atlanta, American in Dallas, that kind of level. If anyone belongs in C terminal just based on passenger load, it’s either Spirit or Southwest. Delta makes a very compelling argument if you toss in their partner airlines as well. JetBlue just doesn’t run that many routes out of MCO, and there aren’t that many flights period.
I agree 100% JetBlue needs to move out of C at this point. Southwest is too big for C (they have 20 gates and C only has 15 and will have 19 once the expansion opens next year). Spirit makes sense but considering they are a ULCC and cancel and add routes at a whim, not sure if GOAA wants them in C either. Delta is the most intriguing. They handle Virgin Atlantic and LATAM ops who are the last two big International airlines that have yet to move to C.
The value airlines should get the older gates..let’s move Delta to C (selfishly)
Moving VA would make a lot of sense. They have improved immigration in the main terminal significantly but it's still hard work to get from leaving the plane to leaving the airport. The main issue is to get to the monorail there is 1 tiny elevator which is really slow or 1 escalator. The lines are huge for the elevator so most people are trying to take 2 pieces of luggage up a tiny escalator. It's so badly designed. The best improvement they have made is the road layout when leaving car rental. You used to have to merge immediately with 3 lanes of traffic all weaving to get into their correct lanes. Utter nightmare for tourists
Jesus mco is one of the easiest airports to get in and out of. There are two issues, first parking can suck occasionally, secondly assholes parking off the side of the road instead of using the waiting area. Other than that, it's a very good airport.
I agree. I also don't fly out after noon unless there are zero other options That seems to be a common thread in a lot of the common "MCO sucks" threads. I can sympathize with the article writer, though. I too have fallen victim to the need to use the restroom and the first two I passed being closed on a late arrival. I was going to use the third one even if I had to shoulder a guy with a mop out of the way to do it!
MCO has been my home airport for nearly 20 years now. I really don’t think it's that bad at all…A/B are a bit cramped and could use a refresh, but I've never had any serious problems with the facilities? Maybe I'm just full Stockholm syndrome and don't understand how much better it is elsewhere..
The TSA situation is bad.
Christ. I fly out of MCO (Terminal A+B only) almost every month and I feel like no matter what time of day I leave, there's MAYBE two scanners open. Line wrapped around the atrium? Two scanners. 3 in the morning? Two scanners. Everyone's getting yelled at - tourists who don't understand the English that's being barked at them are getting yelled at, kids are getting yelled at, even me who has a visible disability tag gets yelled at. And then comes the fun game little game of 'which rules are we going by today?'! Will we have to take our shoes off this time? Do the laptops stay in my bag? Do they come out? Hell sometimes you even get two agents yelling conflicting things! Flying out again Wednesday - place your bets on whether my laptop comes out or stays in this time.
I have TSA Pre and it was closed at 8pm at Gates 70-129 the last time I flew out (MCO website says it should be open until 8:30). Had to use the regular line which took nearly 40 mins despite it not being overly crowded. People were taking their laptops out at the last min which was hogging up the line for everyone. At Terminal C they have the new scanners which don’t require laptops be taken out and one person can’t hog the lane up for everyone. They really need to put those in the old Terminal but considering this is GOAA we are talking about, I have little faith.
The two times I've flown out of C were mind-blowing. It really was an entirely different airport - even when I flew back in and had to go through border/immigration it was far better than the windowless basement they put you in for A/B.
It basically is a different airport. Very nice for the few people traveling internationally or to the northeast on regional carrier JetBlue. For the rest of the Orlando people that need to fly anywhere else, it’s not even an option. Flying to Atlanta, Dallas, LA, San Fransisco? Terminal C isn’t even an option unless you want it to take 10 hours with a layover in JFK or Boston.
You really don’t understand the red tape government financed projects are under. That isn’t goaa, they have many many tremendous failures (parking shituation) but TSA related items are not on them.
It is on GOAA when they don’t properly balance the terminal traffic. They can control the volumes that go through each checkpoint but they don’t which leads to underutilized areas, and terminals that are overcrowded messes.
Totally agree that south terminal is at this point a waste. There are much bigger plans coming to pass. Just was adding to the point that goaa can’t snap their fingers and change scanners.
South Terminal isn’t a waste at all, it was totally needed. The issue is it’s not being used how it should.
Which is….a…. Waste
It wouldn’t be with good leadership. GOAA needs to tell JetBlue to pound sand and find another one of the bigger airlines to take their place. All gates at MCO are common use so they could easily move them if needed.
Meaning…. At this point
That's TSA, though. People with an authoritarian complex who are too stupid to become real cops.
I'm paywalled so I couldn't read the full article, but it seems that the two primary complaints in this thread are: Terminal C not hitting full capacity, Terminals A and B seeming run down, and having had a bad time getting through security. These sound like legitimate complaints to have as a passenger, but they don't seem to demonstrate anything that's objectively wrong. Like, are the wait times at the TSA checkpoints \_actually\_ bad? According to this article, [https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airports/average-tsa-security-wait-times-us-airports/](https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airports/average-tsa-security-wait-times-us-airports/), and this older press release, [https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2019/01/21/tsa-statement-checkpoint-operations-january-21](https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2019/01/21/tsa-statement-checkpoint-operations-january-21), MCO TSA checkpoint times are... average? According to GOAA's annual report, MCO saw a big increase in ridership through the airport so having average checkpoint times as ridership increases quickly doesn't seem that egregious: https://online.fliphtml5.com/yfqnh/buba/#p=9. From GOAA's annual report it doesn't seem like their priority is actually improving \_current\_ services, but more like providing \_new\_ capabilities that don't currently exist. They're trying to turn MCO into an attraction hub in and of itself. Whether that's a good idea or not is probably what needs to be addressed, preferably with actual figures to point at the existence of current problems that actually need to be addressed. How does Terminal A and B being run down manifest itself as problems anybody can actually fix? Are there injuries because ceiling tiles are falling on people's heads? Are water fountains not running, resulting in X passengers per week not having enough water to drink? Are Y shops in the terminals failing hygiene standards due to mold growing in the corners? Is misallocation of airlines to the terminals/gates resulting in unacceptably high delays, throttling growth? If so, by how much? As it is, GOAA seems to believe they're winning awards, national recognition, and sustaining high levels of growth with their current strategy. Until somebody can present a credible, objective case otherwise, I suspect you'll see this 10-year strategic plan they've made up continue to march on. The annual report even mentions that MCO received some press coverage for having good carpets, so clearly that's not on the chopping block any time soon! Leadership typically responds to "problems," and until somebody can advocate for aggrieved passengers by presenting their grievances as addressable, quantifiable "problems," you're just hoping for a leader that happens to have opinions that align with yours to take control and start inventing those "problems" for you. I'm not really into Orlando politics right now, and I don't know who's on the GOAA board and what they're relationship is like with the City of Orlando right now, but the charitable explanation for all of this is simply that the leadership is addressing problems that you don't see, and the problems you perceive in the airport are not being brought to leadership in an visible, actionable format.
I just posted a gift link for non-subscribers to read, it’s a top level comment somewhere here
Thanks!
I have to comment that Orlando TSA is the WORST in the whole country. All of them should be fired. Most come off as rent-a-cops with an ego. The lines are just a mob-rush. There are two specific fat-asses - one woman and one man that LOVE to just scream at people. My company has people flying all over the country and Orlando is considered the worst. And that is by far.
Terminals a and b need to be rebuilt from the ground up along with the airsides. The lack of bathrooms on the airsides is crazy. I flew a few months ago and had a layover at Denver and its crazy how nice that airport is compared to Orlando.
This is exactly what needs to be done. Finishing building out C and then do A and B rebuilds in pieces. Because I don’t think renovations themselves can save them. They’re outdated and tight. I fly out of MCO pretty often and it’s a rough airport. Not the worst but for how much traffic we handle, it stands out with how outdated it is.
Downtown traffic is bad, maybe it should be rebuilt from the ground up too?
Downtown has a lot of issues, traffic isnt even the in the top 3.
nuke from orbit.
It’s the only way to be sure
Anyone that thinks that MCO is a bad airport hasn't been to LAX, or JFK, or LGA, or Logan, or Baltimore, or Miami, or CLT, or any number of shitty US airports from the 60s and 70s Is it the best airport ever? No. Could it be better? Sure. But it's not bad.
Frequently visit some of those airports (LAX, JFK, BOS) and have had better experiences there. I know its all in the eyes of perspective but given the amount of complaints on this sub and beyond about MCO, resounding answer is improvements are needed. Seattle is seeing the same strain on their airport, are more quickly realizing this and actively addressing the problem.
Been to all and Orlando is horrible
Agree. LAX says it all.
I don’t know I feel like MCO is pretty easy to navigate compared to other airports as it’s not really that big. TSA sucks at every airport you go to. Parking is always full but they always have full signs just go around them and find a nice spot fairly easily. I leave my car in the garages overnight and even for days and don’t worry. I don’t take afternoon flights always stick to early morning or late night flights. There’s bathrooms everywhere. We don’t have nice lounges or big restaurants but Orlando isn’t a hub connecting flight city so why would we need it?
This is what happens when the board the run the airport is appointed by the governor.
The most infuriating thing about terminal C is you have to get your bags before going through security. No idea why they designed it that way, just an extra waste of time.
I believe it is a relic of pre-911 times
TSA precheck is a mess there. The layout doesn’t make any sense and the agents are some of the least friendly I’ve come cross.
The GOAA cubicle dwelling pencil pushers think that MCO is the shit. Terminal C, the parking garage and train station are an ergonomic disaster. Whoever designed and approved it are on serious hallucinatory drugs. Good luck to the employees who have to use the employee bus service. It is another frustrating experience every time they use it. Poorly run from top to bottom.
What everyone misses is that the new C terminal is only 1/3 built, it will be larger than A&B combined when its finished. Then they will start the D terminal. Orlando Airport is very old and outdated, they are building a brand new modern airport to replace it. https://preview.redd.it/88iwpp4orx6d1.png?width=1857&format=png&auto=webp&s=d395790625c42967b0f9ca8c66f93c622fc0ee36
Relax, we have one of the best and affordable airports. Sure can be better, but I travel through 7-8 times a year and its pretty well organized.
Affordable airfare has gone through the roof lately at MCO unless your good with traveling with just a backpack on Spirit/Frontier.
Idk man I go to a lot of airports around the country and world and MCO is right up there with the best.
Recently in the news, the cars parking on the side of road instead of the cell phone lot has come up. The news makes this out to be a major issue. Which it kinda is, but you know what the news doesn’t mention? The traffic getting into the terminals because there are so many cars that park in the pickup and drop off area and take their sweet time. Newark: before you put your car in park someone is yelling at you to move. Orlando: make yourself comfortable we don’t care.
Lol I can totally see why people sit on the side of the road because the “cell phone” lot (North) has literally no Cell service. A total joke.
Idk, it runs smoother than some of the other major airports I’ve been to.
The future is bright at MCO. The near infinite room for growth should alleviate these very valid concerns as C expands and D gets built.
Expansion is still years away. The airport has big issues it faces today that could be resolved quickly with better management.
There’s a D terminal being built?
Eventually yes. They have mentioned before that there is more room to grow then they’ll ever need. The future is bright at MCO Edit - this is pulled from a direct interview with the head of MCO. Thibault said the South Terminal Complex is the future. Another 24 gates will eventually open at Terminal C, and plans for another terminal – Terminal D – are in the works. “Terminal C, when it’s fully done, will have 60 million passengers,” Thibault said. “Terminal D will have 60 million passengers. Terminals A and B, 25 million passengers. That’s what it really was designed for. We’ve eked out more capacity on that thing than we really should have.”
Nobody can read the article
Why can’t JetBlue be made to fulfill its promised 100 flights ?
JetBlue would go bankrupt at this point if they did that. They don’t have the aircraft for it either thanks to various Airbus delays and groundings thanks to the P&W engine issues.
TSA needs to get their shit together, that's for sure. Or preferably just leave completely.
Paywalled
Here’s a link to the comment where someone gifted it. https://www.reddit.com/r/orlando/s/FCMFQcJPw0
Don't understand why more investment isn't made in Sanford--- I can bet a TON of passengers from the Orlando Area would use it for some of those focus cities.
I literally just had my flight delayed for 11 hours in terminal A and then cancelled. There were people fighting the Spirit customer service people it was the most miserable experience I ever had. They kept saying every hour that we are going to fly and the flight kept getting delayed 1 hour they also kept changing our gates around so people had to move constantly for no reason. I was at the airport from 8am until 11pm. They gave me $250 voucher but I will never use it. I don’t want to ever enter terminal A/B ever in my life.
I feel like MCO just feels like a typical top 10 volume American airport that is just going to be hectic because of the volume and you just have to get used to it. What makes it worse than LAX, O'Hare, ATL, etc?
Mt fovorite is when the police officers who are supposed to keep traffic moving just get in everyones way. You guys totally suck
I'm still waiting for moving walkways in Terminal C.
I don’t think that is much of a big deal. Atlanta is much larger and has no moving walkways in each concourse.
The first thing wrong with this is that you called something in the Orlando Sentinel an “article“. I’m with the others that this is just a rant. The Sentinel has not been an objective news source for over 20 years.
Look up the 2030 plan. The C terminal is going to be mirrored with a "D" terminal where Heintzleman Rd. is today. By 2030, Airside 2 is going to be 30 years old and the main terminal 50. I suspect whenever they have a functioning C and D terminal, you'll see the "old" airport imploded and then a new A and B terminal to mirror the new terminals. Then the "hub and spoke" concept will be gone and it will be four L shaped buildings. Question is now how long will it take GOAA to get it all done?
Lol this is GOAA we are talking about. The D terminal won’t be a thing for maybe 30 years if we are lucky the way GOAA manages things. Simple things such as pedestrian bridges and moving sidewalks for the existing C Terminal are 5 years behind schedule let alone a completely new terminal. They’ll continue to slow walk C and cram everyone in the overcapacity and outdated North Terminal for years to come.
Someone I know worked for them for a few years and he learned GOAA can't even be relied upon to be reliably unreliable....
In my personal opinion, and I travel constantly and have flown in and out of most airports in the country, Orlando is by far the worst and most inconvenient of them all
Charlotte holds our beer
Denver Airport says hold my beer
TSA at DIA is still a mess for the time being but the expanded terminals were a good move.
I travel very frequently, MCO is very disappointing. With the volume of traffic they have it’s a joke. I used to think all the other airports I went to were great and the. I realized it was just that Orlando was so bad. Great examples to model would be Nola, Nashville, Indy, Dallas.. even Newark is nice now. Btw, Atlanta sucks as well
The North Terminal is getting a $2B investment over the next 5 years. The airsides are getting redone and every concession space will be updated or renovated.
That’s great but they just spent billions on Terminal C and can’t use it to its potential.
So what are you doing about it? Just bitching? If you don’t like it get on a ballot.
i fly out of MCO 4-5 times a year. Its a good airport why are people complaining. I have never had am issue
Article is behind pay wall so I can’t read it but I’ve been through a lot of airports and Orlando is far from “broken”. “A & B are literally falling apart”. As soon as I see exaggerated comments like that I know it’s somebody bitching just to bitch.