Arrivals to and departures from Walt Disney World will get easier in the future, but not before more growing pains in the next several years. Executives have approved an ambitious 10-year plan to enhance and expand Orlando International Airport (MCO), investing $6 billion and meet current and projected growth.
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) approved a new strategic vision designed to guide the future of MCO as well as the Orlando Executive Airport (ORL) over the next decade. The master plan aims to drive economic growth, enhance the customer experience, and innovate on the airport experience. According to the GOAA’s 10-year ‘Visioning Plan,’ there are four foundational pillars: Customer Experience, Community, Infrastructure, and People.
The reason for the massive expansion and enhancement plan is simple: demand. As the busiest airport in Florida, and one of the busiest in all of the United States, MCO continues to experience strong travel demand. For the better part of the last two years, the airport has continued to break its own records for visitor volume. The rolling total for the last 12 months is 56,737,251 passengers, which is just short of an all-time high due to domestic travel starting to decelerate.
Airport leaders presented the vision to GOAA board members during a workshop earlier in October. After reviewing the plan, developed out of months of extensive research, collaboration, and input, the GOAA board approved the vision during a recent board meeting, the GOAA announced in the ‘Visioning Plan’ press release.
Since joining GOAA earlier this year, Chief Executive Officer Lance Lyttle has been focused on developing a long-term strategy for a new era of growth and enhancing the guest experience at two of Central Florida’s most important aviation gateways. ORL serves as the region’s premier general aviation facility and primary reliever airport for MCO.
“This vision focuses and unites everything we do around one core purpose: delivering an exceptional experience for everyone who passes through our airports,” said Mr. Lyttle. “We’re creating spaces that are more welcoming, efficient, and enjoyable, from the parking areas to the gate, so that every step of the journey feels seamless.”
“The Board is proud to support a forward-looking vision that balances growth, innovation, and service to our community,” said Stephanie Kopelousos, Chair of the GOAA Board. “This plan ensures that as Central Florida continues to evolve, Orlando International Airport and Orlando Executive Airport remain world-class gateways that reflect the spirit, ambition, and hospitality for which our region is known.”
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Kopelousos is the administrator of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD), which provides government services for Walt Disney World.
(A bit of inside baseball: Kopelousos was brought aboard the CFTOD back when the state and the company resolved their standoff. She was viewed as a compromise candidate between the parties, having a track record of government and political work; she had worked with Walt Disney World in the past on legislation that has been beneficial to the company and was also formerly Governor DeSantis’ legislative affairs director.)
The 10-year plan will be funded with a recently revised $5.9 billion MCO Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and $84.2 million ORL CIP. These massive investments reflect GOAA’s ongoing commitment to expand capacity, modernize facilities, and elevate the passenger journey at every touchpoint.
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority will focus on strategically achieving various five-year and ten-year goals:
Customer Experience
Support all activities and projects necessary to attain a 5-star Skytrax rating, a global rating system that ranks airports on quality of service and other standards.
By 2035, activate 60% of current vacant real estate assets at ORL while maximizing revenue.
Community
Develop at least one new cargo processing facility and complete an FAA-approved on-airport AAM vertiport by 2030, designed to accommodate multiple commercial operators and support the future of air mobility.
By 2030, increase non-aeronautical revenue by 30% compared to the revenue figures recorded for 2025.
Infrastructure
Increase available public parking by 8,000 spaces by 2030.
Complete the construction of a new Baggage Handling System for Terminals A & B by 2030.
Complete Airside 2 gate expansions by 2030.
Incorporate additional passenger conveyance in Terminal C from Palm Court to Gate C230.
By 2035, complete Terminal C, Phase 2, construction.
People
By 2030, launch a fully operational Business Incubator at MCO to drive innovation and strategic growth, including increasing the number of small businesses working with MCO by 40%.
By 2028, achieve a 20% increase over 2025 baseline employee engagement scores to attain an employee engagement score of 90% within 5 years.
Other vision initiatives range from restoring stormwater structures to a nomenclature project that will focus on renaming all terminals by numbering them Terminals 1, 2, and 3 to improve clarity and consistency.
Here’s a video of the GOAA’s 10-year vision for MCO:
There are a lot of details in the video that are not mentioned in the plan outline above, including but not limited to the following:
Facial recognition technology for a faster, safer and hands-free experience
Enhanced flight information display systems for real-time updates
Improved wayfinding
Autonomous wheelchair technology
Smart restrooms
Reimagined dining and concessions with an emphasis on mobile food ordering
Personalized retail
Immersive play areas for families with theme park inspiration
virtual and augmented reality rides & experiences
new lounges offering space to relax or work
Our Commentary
These infrastructure investments come as other airports around the country are doing the same, and as MCO has inarguably fallen behind the curve for an airport that sees its visitor volume. This is true both in the guest-facing experience, as overcrowded terminals make MCO unpleasant even outside of peak travel periods, and with backend infrastructure that struggles to keep up with strain on the system.
Orlando International Airport simply was not built for the traffic it’s seeing, and that’s even with the new Terminal C picking up some of the demand. That expansion had been in motion for as long as I can remember, and was finally on track and under development…right as COVID hit. The result is still impressive, but there’s obvious cost-cutting, including the deferral of its second phase.
MCO badly needs modernization and expansion, and we’re pleased to see that happening with this massive $6 billion investment. That should great improve the arrival and departure experience, making for a better first and last impression with Walt Disney World guests.
As we’ve repeatedly reported, MCO has broken passenger volume records over the course of the last couple of years and almost all of its busiest days, weeks, and months ever have occurred since 2022. The airport is only just starting to slow down and not see year-over-year growth, but even so, it still remains well above the 2019 baseline.
For the last couple of years, MCO has largely been treading water. The GOAA originally forecast a record-breaking 60 million passengers last year, or a 10% increase from 2023’s record 57.7 million passengers. Due to a slowdown in the second half of the year, the actual number ended up being 57,211,628.
The current rolling 12-month total is 56,737,251 passengers, suggesting another slight year-over-year slowdown. This is largely due to a decrease in domestic travelers, as the international volume continues to show robust growth and set new records.
Regardless, these numbers are really extraordinary and reflective of the airport more or less hitting a soft ceiling on its operational capacity. (Meaning the off-season has excess bandwidth, but there’s a lack of demand; peak season has unsatisfied demand, but the airport is already bursting at the seams.)
To put these numbers into context, MCO was seeing ~15% annual growth in 2022 and 2023. That’s well above the projected baseline of 2-3%.
With more additions coming to Orlando’s tourism sector–such as Epic Universe at Universal Orlando and $17 billion of investment at Walt Disney World over the next decade–there’s a long runway for added demand. The gate expansions and second phase of Terminal C will be badly needed by the 2030s.
Anyone who has traveled through MCO in the last few years has probably seen this, and it doesn’t really matter what time of year, what time of day, etc. The airport is almost always busy. Seating areas at the gates are so full that they’ve added overflow seating to walkways, and those are now full. The parking lots routinely are full, there’s traffic congestion just dropping people off or making pickups, lines to get through TSA are often 30+ minutes–you get the idea.
We experienced this first-hand and documented it in Our Awful Airport Experiences at Walt Disney World from last Christmas. Those were major problems getting from Walt Disney World to MCO, and then at the Delta counter for bag drop. That line ended up taking me over an hour. Just to drop off a bag and verify my ID. No special assistance–I had already done the self-service printing of tags and everything.
I fly through MCO on a lot. At least twice per month, sometimes more often. (I’m up to 15 departures for the year through late October, with at least two more to go!) So I see the crowds and chaos a lot. But I’m usually flying solo with only a carry-on and TSA Pre-Check, so I don’t get a complete picture of the experience.
On a positive note, I’ve had a few of my most pleasant MCO experiences since 2020-2021 in the last 3 months. Obviously anecdotal, but the airport has felt much less busy to me than at any point in a long time. There was a lengthy stretch when every departure was worse than the one before it.
That ended about a year ago, and things have slowly been getting better since. Granted, my last few departures were during the off-season, but it’s not like I’m a stranger to off-season flights. MCO was not a madhouse for the first time in a while!
I’m sure that has already changed with the arrival of Fall Break, and will only worsen in the coming months. By the time we next leave MCO at Christmas-time, I’ll be laughing at the notion that the airport was ever anything but chaotic and crowded.
MCO getting worse before it gets better is what’ll happen one way or another. There will be growing pains both as a result of construction, and the inevitable rise in passenger traffic. While it’s impossible to say what’ll happen in the short-term with visitor volume, it’s probably safe to say that the general trendline points up.
Orlando International Airport will likely break 60 million passengers in a year before the 2030s arrive, and prior to completion of Terminal C, Phase 2 in 2035. Or at least, that MCO would have the demand to hit 60 million if it had the capacity.
In the meantime, it’s safe to expect some headaches. We’ve lived through the LAX transformation program that’s been underway over the last decade, and aims to modernize the airport ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. That’s a bit different in scale and scope as it’s a $30 billion project with more moving parts. Suffice to say, the LAX transformation has likewise involved growing pains.
They’re unavoidable with projects like this. At least a big part of the MCO project is essentially building a new terminal away from the legacy ones, so those construction impacts will be negligible. But they still have plenty to do with Terminals A & B, and with backend infrastructure. There will certainly be guest impacts in the decade to come.
Ultimately, Orlando International Airport clearly has infrastructure issues and badly needs both modernization of the existing facilities and further expansion. The airport was built decades ago when passenger volume was far lower and different, and Terminal C was a smaller swing than it should’ve been thanks to COVID.
MCO is now one of the busiest airports in the United States, and reminds me of Los Angeles International Airport in terms of chaos and crowds. MCO isn’t quite on par with LAX, but it has grown at a faster rate with even more potential for the future.
The only difference is that LAX is controlled chaos, as that uber-busy airport can process high numbers of people surprisingly well. MCO can’t. It’s also nearing the finish line in its own decade-plus, multi-billion dollar modernization and expansion.
It wouldn’t be a post about MCO without a mention of Magical Express, so we’ll once again reiterate our position that Walt Disney World’s airport shuttle should return. Orlando International Airport needs to improve its efficiency in multiple regards, and having passengers and luggage arrive and depart via higher-capacity buses is one such way.
Bringing back Disney’s Magical Express as an interim solution and have it subsidized by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority would be a mutually-beneficial solution for both Disney’s and MCO’s woes. I’m not even kidding. But that’s another story for another day.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think about the return of the MCO modernization and expansion plan? Thoughts on any of the specifics or bigger picture portions of this proposal? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
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