Following a June board meeting the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) can now reveal some initial design concepts for Phase 1 Terminal C of the South Terminal Complex project.

 

Renowned airport architect Curtis Fentress has drawn up preliminary designs for the South Terminal Complex; composed featured descriptions and the first visuals of proposed project advancements for the $1.8bn first phase.

 

Part of the plans for STC include ‘The Boulevard’ — a corridor that runs the length of the terminal and connects the major civic areas of the ground transportation facility, the ticket hall and the ‘concessions hub’.

 

The GOAA also plans to have more concessions located beyond security, along with Club/Lounge opportunities and a ‘concessions in the park’ area.

 

 

As concession revenue makes up around 12% of total operating revenue at MCO, TRBusiness understands that retail & F&B at the new South Terminal will play an important role. We now know that plans for the new concession programme are being designed, however there has been no announcements about the retail operators involved.

 

EXISTING RETAIL OPERATORS

MCO already has a master developer (Westfield) in place, which manages a portion of the airport’s landside retail, but the airport authority works directly with the majority of concessionaires including the duty free Nuance/DFASS joint venture and the numerous theme park store companies (such as Disney, SeaWorld etc).

 

“In order for Orlando International Airport to continue to offer world-class customer service, we need to expand our world-class facilities while also adding excitement to the travel experience,” said Frank Kruppenbacher, Greater Orlando Aviation Authority Chairman.

 

 

During an exclusive interview with Tracy Harris Manager of Concessions and Carolyn M. Fennell Senior Director of Public Affairs and Community Relations, from the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA), TRBusiness was taken on a tour of MCO, in April this year.

 

Harris and Fennell spoke of plans for the new $1.8bn South Terminal Complex (STC), which was approved in March 2016 by the GOAA Board as part of a revised Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for FY 2016-2023.

 

 

“We award concessions in one of three ways; that involves requests for bids, requests for proposal and direct negotiations,” Harris told TRBusiness in April. “The majority of what we do is a competitive process so it’s either a request for bid or request for proposals based on what type of concession it is.

 

NEW GATEWAY FOR ORLANDO

“Certainly there’s number of criteria that we look at when we launch an RFP bidders have to follow including the design, the concept. We really try to take a look at the location of the space and what is the market for that space. So what is the traffic mix, what sorts of opportunities might we have in our programme that haven’t already been fulfilled. That sort of thing.”

 

“The challenge is to create a new gateway for Orlando, one that is unique and says Orlando and enhances the Orlando Experience,” said Fentress. “We’re making this intuitive so the passenger is drawn from one element to the next in order to create a very exciting and memorable arrival into the city of Orlando.”

 

 

The 16-gate first phase will feature a flexible gate configuration that will be able to accommodate narrow body, jumbo and super jumbo aircraft.

 

While still currently only in the design phase of development, the South Terminal project will continue to move forward in response to Orlando International Airport’s record-breaking traffic that surpassed 40m annual passengers in May, based on a rolling 12-month total.

 

“At this point, we will surpass the trigger set earlier by the board of 38.5 million passengers for six consecutive months and with all things being equal, we expect to begin construction of the South Terminal in the first quarter of 2017,” said Executive Director Phil Brown.

 

With more than 40m passengers, MCO is the second busiest airport in Florida and 14th busiest in the US.