It’s wonderful living in this part of Florida, especially if you like to vacation out of state.
In my four decades here, I’ve arranged flights into or out of eight airports within 2.5 hours of my home — from Sanford to Miami and as far west as St. Petersburg-Clearwater.
To me, it’s about cost and convenience, so I’ve never flown from airports in my hometown of Vero Beach or Daytona Beach.
I rarely fly out of my favorite airport, Melbourne, because it has higher prices and few direct flights. That’s my chief complaint.
The folks running Orlando International Airport (MCO) have a bigger complaint about their counterparts in Melbourne.
In part, it supposedly relates to something like this:
Many Floridians understand the state’s airport landscape. Many of the tens of millions of tourists who visit our region annually don’t.
Like the panicked couple from Kentucky I met at Sanford’s airport last summer. They’d delivered a vehicle to a relative near Lakeland and booked a flight home from “Orlando.”
They were worried they’d miss their plane because they were more than an hour behind schedule. That’s how long it took them to get from the Orlando International Airport off the Beachline Expressway in Orange County to what’s officially called Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) in Seminole County.
They’re really lucky they were not flying out of what’s called Orlando Melbourne International Airport (MLB) in Brevard County. That could have added more than an hour to their trip.
They were confused, probably like others, about which “Orlando” airport they were flying out of.
More: Orlando airport authority sues Melbourne counterparts over name
This, in part, is why the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, a governmental agency that operates MCO, the massive airport in Orange County, on March 19 sued the Melbourne Airport Authority in federal court.
The Orlando folks also allege MLB has violated the big airport’s trademark and falsely advertises its proximity to the theme park region.
The federal complaint lists several allegations about an airport Google Maps tells me is 62.7 miles away from MCO. The complaint cites 2015 Melbourne authority minutes stating the importance of using Orlando to lure internet search traffic to connect the airport to theme parks in Central Florida.
More: No confusion, no reason to settle potential case, Melbourne mayor says in 2017
Melbourne started marketing the Orlando tag in 2010 and its website visits increased from 1.5 million to 5.0 million, according to Florida Today. GOAA didn’t get stoked until about 2015.
Meantime, GOAA has a similar issue with the folks in Sanford. The airport in Seminole County has a real identity problem if you look at the website of its main airline, Allegiant Air: It lists flights from Orlando/Sanford and Daytona Beach/Sanford.
It’s not the only place for potential confusion. Think about Chicago and the four airports that have the Windy City in their names:
Chicago Midway, 11 miles from downtown.
Chicago O’Hare, 17 miles.
Gary Chicago, 29 miles.
Chicago Rockford, 86 miles.
Based on Rockford, maybe Vero Beach should start calling itself Orlando Vero Beach airport. It’s only 98 miles from MCO.
Just kidding.
In a recent Facebook post, readers disagreed on whether the Orlando monikers were confusing. One former Vero Beach resident said he was trying to fly to Melbourne to visit Vero Beach, but was worried he’d end up in Orlando.
Some folks suggested no one owns the right to use the “Orlando” name and the only winner here would be the lawyers.
I agree. I also thought Patrick Swift’s comment was prescient:
“Interesting situation … I don’t blame Melbourne for trying to cash in on Orlando’s popularity and I don’t blame Orlando for trying to maintain their market share.”
A 2017 Florida Today article quoted Frank Kruppenbacher, chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.
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“It’s really about protecting the consumer and the brand,” he said, adding he hoped for an equitable solution between the two airports.
“The issue is really about confusion,” he said, adding it was not about passenger revenue.
If it’s really about confusion, there’s a simple middle ground everyone could agree with: Allow Melbourne and Sanford to rebrand themselves using their city names first and Orlando, as in the region, like the Gary airport does.
The lack of agreement between three governmental airport authorities who are supposed to serve us, the public, suggests the real issue is something else: market share, which some people might call greed.
The Orlando regional air market is big enough for everyone. There were 323,160 commercial flights into and out of MCO in 2018, 20,691 at SFB and 5,103 at MLB, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Activities System.
The inability of adults to work together could drive up the costs in each of the airports, to pay lawyers. That’s money that could have been spent more productively: on airport improvements, airline incentives, raises for airport employees, etc.
Can’t everyone work together without lawyers getting in the way?
This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at [email protected], phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman
Jack Rylas, chairman of the Melbourne Airport Authority, talks about the complaint of using Orlando Melbourne International Airport for the name of the airport.
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