Spring break breaks Orlando airport daily passenger record

Orlando’s airport had been bracing for a crush on Saturday of nearly 198,000 passengers, which would make it the busiest day of the busiest period of the busiest year in airport history.

They erred in that prediction. An even bigger crush is expected.

Last Saturday, it turns out, saw 200,506 travelers coming and going from planes and gates. It was the first time the 200,000 mark was topped and was Orlando International Airport’s busiest day in its more than 40-year history.

On that day, March 16, the airport also was the busiest among all U.S. airports for the volume of passengers processed through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, beating the next busiest — at Los Angeles, New York’s JFK and Atlanta.

That’s what spring break – busier than Thanksgiving and busier than Christmas – does to Orlando’s airport.

Last year, said airport director Kevin Thibault, “shattered all passenger records” and this year is on track to do the same.

And the holiday stretch – sort of a rush hour that lasts a month – is not over.

Airport spokesperson Angela Starke said predictions have been recalculated and now show 202,000 passengers on Saturday, which would topple a daily record only a week old.

Come three hours early for parking, ticket lobbies, security powerpoints and getting to airline gates, and practice patience, Starke said.

The airport’s spring break surge runs 44 days from Saturday, Feb. 24 to Sunday, April 7. Even Easter on March 31 could see nearly 190,000 passengers, according to airport projections.

The airport has struggled in the past to match airport capacity with passenger demand, as 2001 terror attacks, the Great Recession and the pandemic rendered the sprawling terminal spaces into empty caverns.

Currently, however, the margin between capacity and demand is thinning. The airport has absorbed blistering, double-digit growth for the past 18 months and ended last year running away from other airports in Florida as the state’s busiest.

The A and B terminal complex, thanks to some big upgrades and expansions coming out of the pandemic, is designed to accommodate between 45 million and 50 million passengers annually.

Terminal C, which opened in late 2022, is built for 10 million to 12 million passengers a year.

Airport managers predict this year will see more than 60 million passengers. As the airport is currently configured, that would mean approximately 53 million in the A-B terminals and about 7 million in Terminal C.

But next month, the airport is transferring Aeromexico, Avianca and Copa airlines, and their half-million annual passengers, from A-B to C.

The airport also is adding eight gates to Terminal C, which currently has 15.

Thibault said that before those gates open in early 2026, more airlines will be assigned to operate in Terminal C.

In the meantime, terminals A and B are in for costly refurbishments, with requests for proposals in the works. Also in the offing is an airport-wide guidance system for parking at lots and garages that routinely fill to capacity.

“We are very public about these projects and programs,” Thibault said. “We will continue to invest.”