It Could Get Easier To Fly at Disney World's "Other" Airport

Big things could be happening at the “other” airport close to Disney World.

Orlando Sanford Airport

We’ve spoken before about Sanford International Airport, the “other” major airport (besides Orlando International Airport/MCO) close to Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and the rest of Central Florida’s tourist attractions. Now, Seminole County — where the airport is located — has made a major financial decision regarding its future.

On March 25th, the Seminole County Commission approved a $1 million agreement with the Sanford Airport Authority that will try to “draw airlines to grow flight service or draw companies to locate at the roughly 3,000-acre airport” through incentives.

Incentives, which promise things like minimum revenue guarantees and other financial perks to carriers are used to draw new airlines and new routes to the airport. As part of the program, the airport will come before the board with any new service or other economic development funding potentially tied to the agreement.

Sanford Airport

According to an interview with Seminole County Commissioner Bob Dallari in the Orlando Business Journal, these incentives will only grow the airport, which had about 2.8 million passengers in 2024. “One of the big businesses here is the airport — it’s huge,” Dallari said. “Our airport has close to 3 million passengers and it will grow just like Orlando International Airport will grow.”

This isn’t the first time that the county and the airport have come to this type of agreement. A similar one in the early 2000s was able to recruit Icelandair service to the airport in 2006. However, as Bijan Vasigh, a professor in the Department of Accounting, Economics, Finance & Information Sciences in the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University College of Business there can be a downside to these types of incentives for smaller regional airports. Specifically, airlines will often end their service at the airport once the incentives end. For example, the aforementioned Icelandair service ended in 2016.

Orlando Sanford International Airport

It remains to be seen how successful the new incentive program will be for Sanford International Airport, but there’s a chance it could help grow the airport exponentially, which in turn could change what flying into the Orlando area is like forever. Stay tuned to AllEars for more about the evolving Central Florida tourism market.