Metro Orlando Airport News

[uncreativeusername]

^Yes, I've been glad to see The Sentinel really digging in on this.  Kudos.

On a lighter note, I don't remember seeing this posted earlier - just stumbled across this great flyover of Terminal C construction from back in July.

 

[spenser1058]

The Dark Side has reversed course:

Where will they strike next?

[HankStrong]

That was super shady.  Glad it was brought to light.

[shardoon]

Through August, 49.9 million passengers. Very possible to be near 51 million when the entire year of 2019 calculated 

[jrs2]

3 hours ago, shardoon said:

Through August, 49.9 million passengers. Very possible to be near 51 million when the entire year of 2019 calculated 

that would be a fantastic milestone.  When KPM&G finally opens, that will help with those numbers a little bit- another source of business flights.

[sethM]

46 minutes ago, jrs2 said:

When KPM&G finally opens, that will help with those numbers a little bit- another source of business flights.

Hasn't the Orlando KPMG office been open for a while now? I'm pretty sure the auditors for my place come from there.

[spenser1058]

13 minutes ago, sethM said:

Hasn't the Orlando KPMG office been open for a while now? I'm pretty sure the auditors for my place come from there.

He’s talking about the new training facility for KPMG out at Lake Nona. They’ve had an audit office in town for some years.

[Camillo Sitte]

MCOs twitter feed just published notice that the U.K. government paid to send two a380s here to pick up all the Brits stranded by the collapse of Thomas Cook.

They observed that this was the very first commercial a380 service at MCO, showed a photo of one of the a380s pulling into Airside 4...and chose to not take any photos of "the very first commercial a380 service" using the new, $50M, never used as such, bi-level three jetbridge a380 gate.

[sethM]

Their Twitter team is usually on point but Emirates brought an A380 to kick off their MCO-DXB service and it's a bit generous to classify the CAA's use of the A380  as a commercial service as you couldn't buy tickets for it.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/84337546-132.html

Anymore info on the A380 specific gate that Orlando has? I haven't seen an unused gate at MCO.

[codypet]

1 hour ago, sethM said:

Their Twitter team is usually on point but Emirates brought an A380 to kick off their MCO-DXB service and it's a bit generous to classify the CAA's use of the A380  as a commercial service as you couldn't buy tickets for it.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/84337546-132.html

Anymore info on the A380 specific gate that Orlando has? I haven't seen an unused gate at MCO.

I assume its Gate 90

Look how the plane has to park to get 3 jetways to it. 

I know the new terminal has purpose built spots for the A 380.  This is the only spot in the airport that I can see then using for an A380 and still use 3 jetways.

Edited October 9, 2019 by codypet

[Camillo Sitte]

51 minutes ago, codypet said:

I assume its Gate 90

It's 90, 90A, and 90B. 

Bi-level, triple jetbridge, just finished a few months ago and built specifically to accommodate the A380.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Camillo Sitte

[Camillo Sitte]

2 hours ago, sethM said:

Their Twitter team is usually on point but Emirates brought an A380 to kick off their MCO-DXB service...

Notice that I put "first commercial service" in air quotes.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Camillo Sitte

[smileguy]

7 minutes ago, Camillo Sitte said:

Notice that I put "first commercial service" in air quotes.

Air quotes because it's an airplane?

[Camillo Sitte]

5 minutes ago, smileguy said:

Air quotes because it's an airplane?

Air quotes as in "it wasn't really a commercial service".

And yes, I understand that you were kidding.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Camillo Sitte

[sethM]

This is really interesting, I had no idea about gate 90. I wonder what airline they're targeting with this gate and investment? Lufthansa, BA, Emirates?  I can't see them building it just to build it when most A380s will be out of service in 10 years.

Lufthansa seems to regularly fill up their 747-400 they have on the FRA-MCO route and BA has two 777-200 LGW-MCO flights a day which both seem like routes they could use the A380 on. Emirates also has a plethora of A380s they could move onto the route but I'm not sure of the load generally is on that route to justify it. 

 

[jrs2]

2 hours ago, Camillo Sitte said:

Air quotes as in "it wasn't really a commercial service".

And yes, I understand that you were kidding.

are you referring to that A-380 that flew from OIA to some Arab prince a few years ago that parked on the commercial aviation side of MCO?

[Camillo Sitte]

1 hour ago, jrs2 said:

are you referring to that A-380 that flew from OIA to some Arab prince a few years ago that parked on the commercial aviation side of MCO?

No, I am saying that I know that the two A380s contracted by the U.K. government to bring stranded Brits home really isn’t a commercial service

Edited October 9, 2019 by Camillo Sitte

[Camillo Sitte]

4 hours ago, sethM said:

This is really interesting, I had no idea about gate 90. I wonder what airline they're targeting with this gate and investment? Lufthansa, BA, Emirates?  I can't see them building it just to build it when most A380s will be out of service in 10 years.

Lufthansa seems to regularly fill up their 747-400 they have on the FRA-MCO route and BA has two 777-200 LGW-MCO flights a day which both seem like routes they could use the A380 on. Emirates also has a plethora of A380s they could move onto the route but I'm not sure of the load generally is on that route to justify it. 

Initial funding for the gate, just as widening various runway and taxiway radii years ago in “preparation” for the A380 in general, came about mostly as a response to Virgin toying with the idea of buying the A380. And, as Virgin’s largest presence outside of Heathrow and Gatwick is Orlando, it was not unreasonable to assume that VS  would eventually send the A380 here.

No one [though actually lots of people] predicted that Airbus would abandon the A380 as quickly as they did. I suspect that after years of delays, MCO went ahead and finally built the gate last year because of a combination of the majority of the funds having been already appropriated and having landed Emirates, the world’s largest A380 operator, providing a better than even chance of actually needing the gate for regular commercial service, even if only from time to time on a peak season or aircraft substitution basis.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Camillo Sitte

[jrs2]

38 minutes ago, Camillo Sitte said:

No, I am saying that I know that the two A380s contracted by the U.K. government to bring stranded Brits home really isn’t a commercial service

I know that.  I was referring to the air quotes comment  a few posts above ala their "first commercial service..."

[sethM]

1 hour ago, Camillo Sitte said:

Initial funding for the gate, just as widening various runway and taxiway radii years ago in “preparation” for the A380 in general, came about mostly as a response to Virgin toying with the idea of buying the A380. And, as Virgin’s largest presence outside of Heathrow and Gatwick is Orlando, it was not unreasonable to assume that VS  would eventually send the A380 here.

No one [though actually lots of people] predicted that Airbus would abandon the A380 as quickly as they did. I suspect that after years of delays, they went ahead and finally built the gate last year because of a combination of the majority of the funds having been already appropriated and having landed Emirates, the world’s largest A380 operator, providing a better than even chance of actually needing the gate for regular commercial service, even if only from time to time on a peak season or aircraft substitution basis.

That's a good explanation. Back when it was new everyone thought it was the future and now that it's here everything is shifting towards smaller planes with a higher volume of routes. I don't think the program has been abandoned, it's just tough to keep building them when your sales backlog runs dry. If you start an airline and put an order in for 50 I'm sure they'll keep the line going. 

I forgot about VS having orders for the planes, I'm sure back in 2014 it seemed like a pretty sure bet we'd see them flying to MCO in the future. I guess we will see A350-1000s instead.

Will Terminal 3 really have A380 spots as well? 

[Camillo Sitte]

1 hour ago, sethM said:

I don't think the program has been abandoned...

Will Terminal 3 really have A380 spots as well? 

After EK announced last year that they were canceling a ~40 plane order, Airbus officially announced in February that the A380 line would be closed down completely no later than early 2021 after the last already-paid-for order is fulfilled.

Airbus was 20 years too late to the VLA game.

The rather pathetic renderings that have been released  show at least three, but I have no idea whether or not they will actually be built.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Camillo Sitte

[shardoon]

58 minutes ago, Camillo Sitte said:

After EK announced last year that they were canceling a ~40 plane order, Airbus officially announced in February that the A380 line would be closed down completely no later than early 2021 after the last already-paid-for order is fulfilled.

Airbus was 20 years too late to the VLA game.

The rather pathetic renderings that have been released  show at least three, but I have no idea whether or not they will actually be built.

This is not the full phase. The expanded the phase to include the arm down to the south to make a T. Although the expanded phase one will be normal gates. It appears there will be 8 for the jumbos 

Edited October 10, 2019 by shardoon

[Camillo Sitte]

52 minutes ago, shardoon said:

This is not the full phase. The expanded the phase to include the arm down to the south to make a T. Although the expanded phase one will be normal gates. It appears there will be 8 for the jumbos 

The post I was responding to asked about A380-specific gates. 

I can't see those additional gates, which were added to the first phase a year or so ago, containing any more A380 gates.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Camillo Sitte

[codypet]

Here's a better view

IIRC I heard Phase II will be built immediately following the completion of I.  Phase III prompts the construction of the APM, but that's not for a while.

[smileguy]

1 hour ago, codypet said:

IIRC I heard Phase II will be built immediately following the completion of I.  Phase III prompts the construction of the APM, but that's not for a while.

Is this an APM for just the South terminal, or would we finally have something to connect gates behind security? I understand Orlando is primarily an origin/destination airport, but I can't help but think we don't have more connecting flights because it's such a damn hassle to get from one gate to another.