Orlando Soars To No. 1; TIA 4th

By TED JACKOVICS tjackovics@tampatrib.com
Published: Apr 8, 2005

TAMPA - Orlando International Airport surpassed Miami International Airport as Florida's busiest in 2004, and Tampa International Airport remained No. 4 with 8.7 million departing passengers.
Four of the state's top five airports, with the exception of Miami, posted double-digit growth in passenger departures in 2004 compared with the previous year, Florida Department of Transportation data show.

The continued surge in passenger travel could augment revenue for Tampa International, which ranks 29th nationally in passenger traffic.

Tampa International concession revenue rose from $36 million in February 2004 to $37.7 million in February 2005, the most recent period data are available. That is 26.8 percent higher than $29.8 million in February 2002, a period the post-terrorism travel recovery began.

``The airport depends on concessions for 70 percent of its annual operating revenue,'' said Louis Miller, Tampa International's executive director. That leaves 30 percent from airlines and other sources.

Robust concession sales keep landing fees and airport rental space inexpensive, inducing airlines to increase service in Tampa, Miller said.

Airport officials expect additional discussions with German carrier Lufthansa about serving Tampa, George Elbe, director of air service development, reported.

In recent weeks, airport officials have met with Taca Airlines in San Salvador and US Airways in Washington. Financially troubled US Airways has said it would maintain its schedule of 27 daily departures.

Miller also said Thursday the airport hoped to spur new jobs at Delta Air Lines' maintenance hangar, where 300 of 350 positions will be transferred, mainly to Atlanta. The airport continues to pursue tenants for the hangar US Airways abandoned in 2002.

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport ranked 10th statewide in passenger departures in 2004 with 667,787.

Spokeswoman Michele Routh said she expects between 500,000 and 550,000 passengers overall in 2005.

The airport will have lost three airlines between Nov. 30, when Southeast Airlines ceased operations, and Sunday, when ATA pulls out. Canadian carrier Jetsgo stopped service March 12.

That leaves the Pinellas airport with two major carriers: USA3000, which increased business 57 percent from 17,012 passengers in January 2004 to 20,306 passengers in January 2005; and newcomer Hooters Air.

Last month fledgling carrier Lehigh Valley Air began flying the Pinellas-Allentown, Pa., route, one of those Southeast abandoned. On Thursday, Hooters Air said it would take over the Lehigh Valley flights.

Man, it's really a shame that Pinellas County didn't blow $240m on its airport, like some folks wanted. Look at the record traffic they're getting! :D

Also, I didn't realize that Orlando's airport has grown to be ahead of Miami's, and that FTL is ahead of Tampa. It seems like TIA is always reportedly growing faster than average or whatever, but it never seems to show up in the rankings.

TIA and FLL are almost neck to neck in total passengers though. They are both around 17-18 million. Those numbers are nothing to sneeze at! Once Airside C opens, and Southwest gets more gates, watch those numbers really go up!

Ft Lauds #s are skyrocketing cuz of how much cheaper it is to use that airport instead of MIA,

and mia is undergoing this multi-billion dollar plan, well at least it might get alot of latin american and international flights, but fll has been alot cheaper than mia,

even me who i live like 10 mins from mia, would drive an extra half hour to use fll,!

Does anyone know where Sarasota- Bradenton Inter. and Southwest Florida Inter. ranked?

MIA is supposedly going to lower landing fees and lower certain fees in response to the lost of passengers and flights.and i think its become a pride thing for them to be surpassed by orlando and soon tia and ftl

Problem with FLL right now, is that they are at full capacity and are continuing to grow. They have no room to expand with the highways and train tracks boardering the airport. The FAA has also started to put a cap on flights into and out of FLL because of all the delays. Something like only 70% of all FLL flights leave on time. Almost up there with O'Hare. I see more domestic routes going into MIA since they have been underutilized, and they have a higher capacity. Even though ticket prices will be higher at MIA due to the more expensive landing fees. I wish FLL the best of luck during these times! :) I used to fly out there all the time when I lived in Coral Springs many years ago.

Does anyone know where Sarasota- Bradenton Inter. and Southwest Florida Inter. ranked?

Way down. Both are around like 2-3 million or something.

MIA is supposedly going to lower landing fees and lower certain fees in response to the lost of passengers and flights.and i think its become a pride thing for them to be surpassed by orlando and soon tia and ftl
Yes, Mad Hatter :) ,and everyone else, your right :) , everyone like us here working by the airport knows how M.i.a .is under construction now, in fact, the entrance to m.i.a. is a disaster under the largest capital development ever in history over a 2 billion makeover to attract the past passengers back to m.i.a. in about 5 years. When the 1 billion south terminal is completed with the almost completed 1 billion American airlines north terminal, m.i.a. will be the most futuristic airport in the nation, believe me everyone, i know,I work for miami-dade county, its almost over 5 billion total in improvements to bring back more passengers than ever before. a whole new rental car center and a new transportation system has already broken ground and is about 35 % completed, to be completed by 2011, it will be the central base of Tri-rail, Metro-rail, and the People Mover system to the airport, here's the F.D.O.T. website, www.MICDOT.com please check this out, you'll agree , Miami will make a comeback in about 5 - 6 years. :cheers:
p.s. I had to retype the website, please try it again, and see it. :)

MIA will never be surpassed by TPA or FTL in total passengers. They're holding at 31 million per year. MCO was at 31.1 million. MCO can't maintain that rate of growth from 2003-2004 again, but it will steadily continue to grow.

I don't know why the author of that article only lists departing passengers. Who cares? You gotta put the total numbers down--- TPA is at 17 million or so like matt stated.

FYI: O'Hare didn't have CTA trains at their terminal until the improvements they made in the late eighties. Unbelievable, isn't it.

MCO expansion: B/C of the new increase in traffic which got MCO's numbers up from the slump 9/11 caused 4 years ago, the South Terminal Complex is back on the books and will add a new landside terminal one mile south of the existing one connected by a tram (which has already been built) to the original terminal. It will add at least 16 gates initially to the 122 it already has.

If Lynx builds a train to connect MCO to the OCCC, it will be probably the most advanced and complete airport in Florida. If not, the MIA will be numero uno with the MIC and all... MIA's only problem is that it is landlocked, otherwise, it is quite a monster when you throw in cargo traffic. Either way, MCO will always be one of the most efficient major aiports in the world especially now that it built the 4th runway.

Orlando is here to stay at the top. With the theme parks getting thousands of new vistors each year, it will be along time before Miami will get close again. Also if you look, Orlando is the lone major airport in central Florida. Tampa has Sarasota and Ft. Myers taking up passengers to the south, and Miami has Ft. Lauderdale. These satellite airports are growing at their own record paces and won't level off for some time either.

And if airports like DAB (daytona) continue to charge higher landing fees, you're right, SDK4, MCO will continue to gain passengers each year, and the DOTS service to shuttle people from Volusia County to MCO will continue to get good business.

I have a feeling though that MIA, once all these improvements are implemented, will continue an upward spike in passenger growth. Case in point: Detroit built a new massive terminal a few years back and their numbers have gone up from a few stagnant years of no growth. I think MCO and MIA will flip flop a few times the next few years for number 1.

FYI, I learned MCO is also expanding Airside 4 the next couple of years (the newer one) by lengthening the two concourses and adding some more gates.

Miami will rebound as far as new passengers, but Orlando is experiancing such a tremendous growth in tourism, that MCO's passengers counts will skyrocket above everyone.

I'd like to see that, b/c it will justify the new terminal. But i'd like to see that moreso to see how close its numbers can come to McCarren Intl.'s numbers, since both airports are the leading tourism based airports in the U.S.

^Vegas should pretty much be ahead of Orlando so long as Las Vegas continues to grow, because Orlando is much more of a driver's destination that Las Vegas, due to simple goegraphy.

not to mention the fact that those major casino companies like Wynn and the like offer the cheapest rooms possible in 3 and 4 star hotels and the airlines offer fairly cheap ticket prices just to get our wallets over there. However, if 9/11 didn't happen, MCO was really close to McCarren's numbers and could have kept pace-- but you're right regarding the driver's destination factor.

Is it OIA or MCO, what is the difference. Which one is right.

Way down. Both are around like 2-3 million or something.

Southwest Florida Intl? 2 million? Maybe SRQ is at 2,000,000 but RSW has gotten over 7,000,000 and will most likely reach 8,000,000 this year. RSW has posted record months ofr the past 10 consecutive months and has gone to surpass PBI int total passenger count. These are total passengers, not just departing. Departing passengers from RSW are about 3.5 million. I believe the ranking is:
#1- Orlando
#2- Miami
#3- Ft. Lauderdale
#4- Tampa
#5- Ft. Myers
Not sure how JAX, SRQ, and PBI rank but I am pretty sure about the top five

Here are the numbers I found for the year 2006:
#1 Orlando (34,759,000) traffic up from 2005
#2 Miami (32,533,974) traffic up from 2005
#3 Ft. Lauderdale (19,443,758) traffic down from 2005
#4 Tampa (18,867,541) traffic down from 2005
#5 Ft. Myers (7,643,217) traffic up from 2005
#6 West Palm Beach (6,824,789) traffic down from 2005
#7 Jacksonville (5,946,188) traffic up from 2005
#8 Pensacola (1,597,502) 2005's numbers. 2006 wasn't available.
#9 Sarasota (1,079,815) traffic up from 2005
#10 Key West (couldn't find numbers, but I believe this would be ranked tenth

Here are the numbers I found for the year 2006:
#1 Orlando (34,759,000) traffic up from 2005
#2 Miami (32,533,974) traffic up from 2005
#3 Ft. Lauderdale (19,443,758) traffic down from 2005
#4 Tampa (18,867,541) traffic down from 2005
#5 Ft. Myers (7,643,217) traffic up from 2005
#6 West Palm Beach (6,824,789) traffic down from 2005
#7 Jacksonville (5,946,188) traffic up from 2005
#8 Pensacola (1,597,502) 2005's numbers. 2006 wasn't available.
#9 Sarasota (1,079,815) traffic up from 2005
#10 Key West (couldn't find numbers, but I believe this would be ranked tenth

OSI (Orlando-Sanford Intl.) had 1,645,989 in 2006, which puts it at #8. traffic down from 2005.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-bk-luft062807,0,6619007.story


Are there any direct flights to Madrid spain?

Is it OIA or MCO, what is the difference. Which one is right.

OIA is the shortened version of Orlando International Airport. MCO is the designated call sign for Orlando International Airport.

MCO is the IATA code and KMCO is the ICAO code. OIA is just a name given to it by locals, kinda like DIA for Denver even though its IATA is DEN.

MCO is the IATA code and KMCO is the ICAO code. OIA is just a name given to it by locals, kinda like DIA for Denver even though its IATA is DEN.
Thanks for the info. I knew there was a better explanation than the one I gave.

lol when i first saw 'mco' i had to look it up. I just know it by oia.

Holy mother of... I had no idea Ft Myers had grown so much!!!

Holy mother of... I had no idea Ft Myers had grown so much!!!

Jason:) , my Masterchief and friend,

I tried telling everyone here in Florida 6 months ago,
there were at least 6 tower construction cranes that can be seen from the I-75 " Long river name that starts with a C " River Bridge into rt.78 going north on the freeway, Ft.Myers is the fastest and now tallest city on the Southwest coast,
taller towers than Sarasota,
and I wanted someone to take pictures and prove it,
and Florida Future:) ,my friend and Tampa Bay master came up with some pics of the New Downtown Ft.Myers:cheers:

Holy mother of... I had no idea Ft Myers had grown so much!!!

Yep. Fastest growing metro area in Florida last year. Thirds fastest growing metro area in the NATION between 2000 and 2006. Fastest growing school district in the state as well. We added nearly 30,000 residents to the county last year alone.

On a side note, RSW has direct service to both Munich (2x weekly) and Dusseldorf Germany (3x weekly) as well as Toronto. It gets more action than most people think.

Yep. Fastest growing metro area in Florida last year. Thirds fastest growing metro area in the NATION between 2000 and 2006. Fastest growing school district in the state as well. We added nearly 30,000 residents to the county last year alone.

On a side note, RSW has direct service to both Munich (2x weekly) and Dusseldorf Germany (3x weekly) as well as Toronto. It gets more action than most people think.

IN FLA:) , my friend,
very so true in your report post here,
the Regional South West " RSW " airport is one of the most recently beautiful new airports in the nation, built far away from the southwest cities so the F.A.A. doesn't have to limit the downtown Ft. Myers skyscrapers heights, yes.:cheers:

but, IMO:nuts: , the only problem I see and very pissed off every month I travel I-75 to visit my daughter in Brandon near Tampa is
The Still after 20 something years:nuts: ,
it's still a 4 lane expressway ( 2 lanes on each side ) from the Aligator Alley mile marker 104 , all the way up to Venice , Fla. Mile marker 201 , except for the Charlotte/Punta Gorda River Bridge which was widen to 6 lanes ( 3 on each side ) some years back:ohno: .

I know so far, its a rush hour's nightmare each time we get caught on friday afternoons going through the Ft. Myers to Naples area.
But , I also know there's No plans what so ever to widen any part of this over growing area of the Interstate.

If you live in this area , please let all of us know, if there;s ever going to be a widening taken place. Especially around the Airport and Germain Arena Interchanges,

thanks In FLA<:)
your input is needed:cheers:

IN FLA:) , my friend,
very so true in your report post here,
the Regional South West " RSW " airport is one of the most recently beautiful new airports in the nation, built far away from the southwest cities so the F.A.A. doesn't have to limit the downtown Ft. Myers skyscrapers heights, yes.:cheers:

but, IMO:nuts: , the only problem I see and very pissed off every month I travel I-75 to visit my daughter in Brandon near Tampa is
The Still after 20 something years:nuts: ,
it's still a 4 lane expressway ( 2 lanes on each side ) from the Aligator Alley mile marker 104 , all the way up to Venice , Fla. Mile marker 201 , except for the Charlotte/Punta Gorda River Bridge which was widen to 6 lanes ( 3 on each side ) some years back:ohno: .

I know so far, its a rush hour's nightmare each time we get caught on friday afternoons going through the Ft. Myers to Naples area.
But , I also know there's No plans what so ever to widen any part of this over growing area of the Interstate.

If you live in this area , please let all of us know, if there;s ever going to be a widening taken place. Especially around the Airport and Germain Arena Interchanges,

thanks In FLA<:)
your input is needed:cheers:

UH!! You are so right. They are making plans and have already begun to widen it to six lanes in some places. Eventually it is going to be widened to ten lanes. The big problem down here is that they want to add toll lanes. Since the Expressway Authority involves both Lee and Collier Counties, both counties have to agree on a plan. Lee wants six toll lanes and Collier wants four. I personally like Collier's plan better. Six is too many. If they can get the funds then I-75 will be widened to 10 lanes by 2015. However, it is no secret that this area of Florida is by far the most shunned region by the State Government. They never give us any money. So right now it is a money issue. It is definatley being widened to six though as we speak. They are also building an interchange strictly for the airport. Also, the airport is already planning to add an extension to the middle concourse which will add more airplane gates. They are also developing an airport business park where the old terminal was. The interchange on Alico is pretty close to completion as well.

I should add the Page Field General Airport is building a new terminal that looks AWESOME!! I've never seen a general aviation terminal like it. They have full size model planes hanging from the ceiling and it will even have a restaurant in it. I saw the renderings on T.V. but I haven't been able to find them online.

Go figure with the report (at the begining of the thread). MCO seems to steal many things from TPA during one point or another. It doesn't surprise me at all.

OIA after expansion is expected to reach 70 million per year is that true.

Will OIA have a dedicated international terminal?

^^
No dedicated International Terminal and here's why. B/C there are a lot of airline alliances now, and if the terminal only has gates for say BA, Virgin, Aer Lingus, and Lufthansa (and perhaps soon Air France), and you need to take a connecting flight via United, Delta, or American, you would have to go back to the landside terminal to connect to the airside with your connecting flight.

What the new South Terminal will have, is 'contact gates' I think that's how they're called-- where the airside and landside are close together -- like in DFW's terminal... in fact, the South Terminal even looks like an inverted DFW terminal. There, you can have a Lufthansa gate, go thru customs, keep your luggage, and then connect within the same terminal quickly.

I imagine the new south terminals will all have the international carriers, as well as some domestic carriers as well.

I think MCO has something like 3 BA flights per day and 3 Virgin flights per day. As of 5 years ago and perhaps today, MCO was Virgin's busiest US hub.

Well DFW now has the AirTrain, which makes connecting a breeze. Anyways, yes there a lot of airline alliances now. That's probably one of the reasons why the Delta/US Airways merger failed. Not to mention a whole mishmash of hubs that would have ensued had the merger gone through. Now Delta, Continental, Northwest, Air France, KLM, and (stupid) Aeroflot are with SkyTeam. US Airways and United are with Star Alliance, and American, Aer Lingus, and British Airways are with OneWorld.

^^
I think MCO has something like 3 BA flights per day and 3 Virgin flights per day. As of 5 years ago and perhaps today, MCO was Virgin's busiest US hub.

British Airways only has one flight a day to Orlando, while Virgin typically has 24 flights a week. New York City-JFK is, not surprisingly, Virgin's busiest US station.

You left out SANFORD-ORLANDO INTERNATIONAL in Sanford at: SFB
1,645,989 passengers last year

Ocklawaha

^Thanks for the comment, and welcome to the forum...

...but please leave out the obnoxious tinkering with the font style, which I have edited after being alerted to it.

Thanks.

I forgot about Daytona Beach too. I wonder how Daytona ranks.

What about St. Pete/Clearwater?? Or are we just talking about the really small airports?

I can see that Orlando likes to pride itself in having passed airport passenger-ship compared to every airport in Florida, but think about this: a hefty 35 million are flying into and out of Orlando every year. Add the big 3 airports in SoFlo: Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach--> that's more than 60 million passengers pumping money into our economy down here. So yippee-cay-a for O-town, but South Florida still takes the cake for influx of air travelers.

I can see that Orlando likes to pride itself in having passed airport passenger-ship compared to every airport in Florida, but think about this: a hefty 35 million are flying into and out of Orlando every year. Add the big 3 airports in SoFlo: Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach--> that's more than 60 million passengers pumping money into our economy down here. So yippee-cay-a for O-town, but South Florida still takes the cake for influx of air travelers.

you see the pride based on what? where in this thread did anyone state that they were so proud that OIA jumped to No.1? I challenge you to find it.

since Miami metro is more than twice Orlando's, explain why Orlando has more of an influx of air travelers per capita Mr. Wizard. BTW, OIA + OSI is about 37M passengers. And I don't know who would fly into PB Intl. and drive 70 miles to Miami. By comparison, at least LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark are all within a reasonable distance from each other.

what are you going to bring up next, a compilation of all of Miami metro's convention facilities to try to out-do Orange County CC in business and size? how pathetic.

Nothing in FL can compare to the size of the OCCC. Tampa's CC is so pitiful in size.

Okay, I take that back. But Tampa CC is a lot smaller. I think that place deserves an expansion.

DShoost88, Miami may be a much larger metro than Orlando, but that still does not explain why you must make comparisons like that.

speaking of OIA, I recently read that it is on pace to hit 36M passengers this year... a little earlier than expected, which may speed up they're plans for the south terminal expansion project.

Okay, here is a list of all commercial airports in Florida with their 2006 total passengers. Most of these are from the Airport Council International (ACI-NA), the rest I had to look up because some airports aren't part of ACI-NA (PBI, PIE, several others):

Orlando (MCO) 34,640,451 +1.5%
Miami (MIA) 32,533,974 +4.9%
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood (FLL) 21,369,787 -4.6%
Tampa (TPA) 18,867,541 -0.9%
Southwest Fla/Ft Myers (RSW) 7,643,217 +1.7%
Palm Beach (PBI) 6,824,789 -2.7%
Jacksonville (JAX) 5,946,188 +3.6%
Sanford (SFB) 1,649,565 -0.2%
Pensacola (PNS) 1,620,198 -1.1%
Sarasota/Bradenton (SRQ) 1,423,113 +6.4%
Tallahassee (TLH) 988,433 -12.5%
Okaloosa Regional (VPS) ~850,000 ?
Key West (EYW) ~700,000 ?
Daytona Beach (DAB) 542,681 -11.9%
St. Petersburg-Clearwater (PIE) 389,997 -34.6%
Panama City (PFN) 354,949 -7.2%
Melbourne (MLB) 338,677 -27.4%
Gainesville (GNV) 316,075 -8.6%
Naples (APF) 57,210 -9.4%
Marathon (MTH) <10,000 ?


Bad news for some places: Marathon (MTH) and Naples (APF) both lost service this year, MTH in July and APF on October 1.
Good news for other places: minor carriers are expanding operations in the state. St. Augustine (SGJ), began scheduled commercial service with Skybus in July this year, to one destination, and will add another in December; while Charlotte County (PGD), begins scheduled commercial service with Skybus in December this year, to two destinations.

Additionally, all of the foregoing numbers are related to scheduled commercial service only. Charter, air taxi, and GA service are not included. If they were some of the large reliever airports would be in the top 10 (ORL, FXE).

Sarasota is growing alot! And against popular belief MIA is still growing and FLL actually lost some, but FLL has had a slight rise the last months.
OIA growing steadily is also good news.
But there sure are alot of smaller airports losing traffic.

Just to give a comparison, here are some preliminary #'s for 2007

Airport, #, % Change
--------------------------------------------------------------

ORLANDO (MCO) 36,480,416 5.3%
MIAMI (MIA) 33,740,416 3.7%
FORT LAUDERDALE (FLL) 22,681,903 6.1%
TAMPA (TPA) 19,154,957 1.5%
FORT MYERS (RSW) 8,029,204 5.1%
WEST PALM BEACH (PBI) 6,967,277 2.8%
JACKSONVILLE (JAX) 6,319,016 6.3%
SANFORD (SFB) 1,788,780 8.4%
PENSACOLA (PNS) 1,669,950 3.1%
SARASOTA (SRQ) 1,557,212 9.4%
TALLAHASSEE (TLH) 938,182 -5.1%
OKALOOSA (VPS) * 800,000 ?????
ST PETERSBURG (PIE) 747,369 91.6%
DAYTONA BEACH (DAB) 705,475 30.0%
PANAMA CITY (PFN) 334,468 -2.2%
GAINESVILLE (GNV) 296,924 -6.1%
MELBOURNE (MLB) 289,845 -14.4%
NAPLES (APF) 39,745 -26.4%


Source (for all but VPS): http://www.aci-na.aero/static/entransit/2007_PRELIMl_passenger_ranking.xls

* Source (VPS): http://www.floridatrend.com/article.asp?aID=48503

(In addition, I couldn't find a passenger count for Key West or Marathon)

:gaah:

TPA still #4...

^^ With that growth its probaly gonna stay like that for a while.

this is the worst gain in raw numbers and growth only matching the post-9/11 nmbers for TIA and a lot of other larger airports are flat. Ft. Lauderdale is doing great, I am sure TIA will gain a higher spot in 2009 due to the large conventions, superbowl, and cost of gas.

:gaah:

TPA still #4...

^^ With that growth its probaly gonna stay like that for a while.

Yeah but look at St. Pete's growth:

ST PETERSBURG (PIE) 747,369 91.6%

It is good for PIE, especially being that they've been losing airlines like flies being swatted down.

this is the worst gain in raw numbers and growth only matching the post-9/11 nmbers for TIA and a lot of other larger airports are flat. Ft. Lauderdale is doing great, I am sure TIA will gain a higher spot in 2009 due to the large conventions, superbowl, and cost of gas.

TPA needs 3.5M more people to catch FTL. They're not getting that from 1 superbowl and from ... "large" conventions. especially not from the price of gas, since it's also affecting jet fuel prices and ticket prices. besides, a good chunk of the superbowl attendees will be staying at Orlando-area hotels and will be flying into OIA... what is that, 17,000 rooms they claim from Orlando to the superbowl committee to meet their minimum requirements to host the event?