V-Flyer

How come Icelandair moved its flights from Orlando Intl to Sanford recently? Was it down to cost or was it down to issues with management of airline/airport or other matters?

Originally posted by VS075
How come Icelandair moved its flights from Orlando Intl to Sanford recently? Was it down to cost or was it down to issues with management of airline/airport or other matters?

It might be a matter of money.

Before I started travelling with Virgin Atlantic I used Charter Flights into Sanford ! On one such trip whilst on a visit to Flightdeck the Capitain told me that Landing Fees & Passenger Fees at Sanford were 1/2 that of landing at Orlando International Airport (OIA).

Sanford is also in a different county than OIA, and I stand to be corrected by others but it's also run by a different authority.

In the early days of Sanford ATC was only manned till 5.30PM, (after that you were given a window to be airborne in by the Approach Controller at OIA), and the runway wasn't long enough for a fully laiden 747 to takeoff.

That must have changed with the arrival of our friends at Travel City Direct !

Well according to reports on the internet the reason was because SFB were willing to invest more money into helping FI create a suprerior travel expereience! Seminole County are giving FI $500,000 a year to promote the new route and as FI are the first schedule airline to use SFB they are getting some very special treatment. I think the lower costs of SFB and the fact that MCO ignored FI because they are small resulted in them moving.

AS a side note SFB is operated by the same company who operate Belfsat Internatioanl and Cardiff, TBI.