Orlando International Airport has its busiest day ever
ORLANDO, Fla. - Spring break is helping Orlando International Airport (MCO) break records!
The airport had its busiest travel day ever on March 16 with a record 102,064 departing passengers, MCO announced in a press release on Friday. This spring break, MCO had more visitors than Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
"That does not include arrivals, which would logically double that number to 204,128 total passengers – the most the airport has ever seen in a single day," MCO said.
The previous MCO daily passenger record was broken on Dec. 30, 2023 with 98,521 people going through security. The day before the record was set, that record was broken again.
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The Airport Authority said keeping up with all those people is like conducting an orchestra.
"I’ve never known Orlando to be that kind of airport," said Mark Tracy, who was flying from Orlando to Ohio on Friday. "But definitely, Florida, there’s a lot of tourist travel."
ORLANDO, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 22: Passengers wait in the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening line at Orlando International Airport ahead of the Christmas holiday travel on December 22, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. Accordi
In 2013, MCO said a little under 35 million people walked through its doors. Last year, that number was closer to 58 million.
"It’s pretty crowded, but so far it’s pretty seamless," passenger Cody Courmier told FOX 35 right before he flew from Orlando to Denver.
Even though Courmier's trip on Friday was a smooth one, the Orlando airport has seen its fair share of trouble during other busy seasons. You might remember previous canceled flight fiascoes over the holidays.
Kevin Thibault, the CEO of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, said the airport is moving some airlines to Terminal C right now, and it plans to add extra gates there in the next couple years, hoping to avoid another fiasco in the future.
"As we continue to grow, the overall plan has been that we will continue to add more capacity here in Terminal C to handle that growth," said Thibault.
MCO recommends that passengers arrive at the airport three hours ahead of your departure just in case. And they’re trying to keep the place nice so you aren’t bored if you wind up waiting around a while.
"There’s some great shops here, so we’ll probably have a look around," said Ronan McGuire, who was flying from Orlando to New York. "It’s definitely one of the biggest airports I’ve been in."
Parking has also been an issue at MCO, but it’s one of the things the airport says it’s working on: There are three new surface lots, it’s trying to move the rental cars to free up 5,000 parking spaces and Terminal C has the option for reserved, prepaid parking.
They hope to expand that to Terminals A and B in the future.
"If you know you've got parking, you've lowered your stress. You come to that event. Same thing here at the airport," Thibault said.
The Airport Authority says Terminals A and B are getting makeovers soon, too.
"A lot of those gates were designed back in 1981 and opened up in 1981 when aircraft were a lot smaller," Thibault added.
Most of these improvements are things we’re going to see gradually over the next two years or so, but the first thing on the list is the pedestrian bridge at Terminal C. That’s set to be completed in October.