First flights arrive at new $2.8 billion terminal in Orlando International Airport

6 international flights to take off, land at Terminal C Tuesday night

The first flights arrived at Orlando International Airport's Terminal C on Tuesday.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The first flights touched down Tuesday at Orlando International Airport’s newest terminal.

Several hundred passengers deplaned an AerLingus flight arriving from Manchester, England, and walked through Terminal C for the first time Tuesday.

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Airport officials said six international flights are expected to take off and land from the $2.8 billion terminal, considered to be one of the most advanced in the world, throughout the night.

The $2.8 billion terminal will rely heavily on the latest technology.

Terminal C features a state-of-the-art baggage handling system, with microchip-activated yellow sleds that move luggage underneath the area to reduce delays.

It also has a TSA checkpoint with automated screening lanes, so the conveyor belt for the X-ray machine is constantly moving as hand luggage goes into bins.

Whatever you choose to bring through security and onto the plane now goes into a bin at the new Terminal C security checkpoint. Everything. So there’s less chance that laces or straps will get wrapped in the x-ray machine rollers.

MCO CEO Kevin Thibault said the new technology at the terminal will shuttle passengers to planes quicker and more efficiently, and the experience will be as painless as possible.

“It’s going to change the whole passenger experience,” Thibault said. “All I can control is what is in the airport footprint. Those planes coming in and out with how they’re controlled because of air traffic control, that’s outside of our purview.”

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About the Authors:

Erik von Ancken anchors and reports for WKMG-TV News 6 (CBS) in Orlando and is a two-time Emmy award-winning journalist in the prestigious and coveted "On-Camera Talent" categories for both anchoring and reporting. Erik joined the News 6 News Team in 2003 days after the tragic loss of space shuttle Columbia.