Don't fly into the wrong Orlando airportIf you’ve flown or you’ll soon be flying into Orlando, you already know that there’s more than one international airport with Orlando in its name. As Frommer’s wrote recently, Orlando International Airport (MCO)—the largest Orlando airport and the city’s main gateway—is much closer to Disney than Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB). In fact, Orlando Sanford isn’t even in Orlando at all:

“Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) is actually closer to Daytona Beach (about 40 miles) than Walt Disney World (50 miles), but that hasn’t stopped officials from filing a trademark with the U.S. Patent Office to cement the word ‘Orlando’ into the airport’s name so that it can get a piece of the estimated 68 million visits to Orlando annually.”

On the subject of Orlando Sanford, the writer continues later: “If you drive by the curb at Arrivals on any given evening, at least a couple of people will be on mobile phones, trying to sort out ground transportation because of their error—I observed it myself after a family member recently made the same mistake.

“And because no-frills carrier Allegiant uses SFB, many customers who think they’ve found a great airfare to Orlando leave the Sanford terminal to realize that they have to pony up another $75 for an hour-long Uber ride to Walt Disney World. If they have accidentally made rental car reservations for the wrong airport, that’s forfeited, too.”

If you fly into Orlando—and especially if you’re heading to Disney—make sure you know where you’re landing!

Related: Pandora: The World of Avatar Arrives at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

 

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3 Comments On "Don't Fly Into the Wrong Orlando Airport"
  1. heidi vargas|

    I had a few clients that did their own air fly into MLB thinking it was MCO ! Names of airports are similar now .. these two airports are more confusing to travelers than Stanford !

  2. Eddie|

    Florida needs to do the right thing and make sanford drop the orlando name.

  3. Lloyd Prince|

    MCO = McCoy Air Force Base from the cold war era in the 60’s and 70’s.
    ORL = Orlando Executive Airport about 4.5 miles north of MCO.

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