Orlando Added Five Gates That Can Become Eight

The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority has opened the Terminal C expansion at Orlando International, a $462 million addition that nudges one of the busiest airports in the United States a little further ahead of its own growth. Orlando handles more originating passengers than almost any American airport, because most people flying there are ending their journey rather than connecting through it. The new gates are numbered 250 through 254 — five on paper. What makes them interesting is the configuration: they are Multiple Aircraft Ramp System gates, which means each position can be subdivided.

In practice a MARS gate is a long apron stand with more than one set of boarding infrastructure, so the same concrete can hold either one wide-body or two narrow-bodies depending on the hour. Across the five positions that yields up to eight narrow-body aircraft or four wide-bodies. For an airport whose traffic swings sharply between transatlantic wide-body waves and domestic narrow-body banks, the flexibility is worth more than a fixed gate count suggests.

The expansion also triggers a tenant move: Virgin Atlantic relocates its Orlando operation into Terminal C, consolidating the airport’s international flying in the building designed for it rather than leaving it split across the older north terminal. Terminal C opened in 2022 as Orlando’s international gateway, and the expansion lifts its annual capacity toward 12 million passengers. HNTB served as architect of record and engineering design manager on the project, which was funded in part by federal terminal grants totalling tens of millions of dollars across two separate awards.

For passengers the change is worth noting mainly because Orlando’s terminals are far apart and connected by an automated people mover rather than a walkway, so arriving at the wrong one is a twenty-minute correction rather than a two-minute one. Flying Virgin Atlantic to or from Orlando now means Terminal C, not the north terminal complex, and the drop-off, parking and security are all different buildings with different approach roads. Anyone meeting an arriving passenger should confirm the terminal before setting off — Orlando’s curbside geography punishes guesswork more than most US airports.

Sources: Future Travel Experience, Orlando International Airport