Orlando International Airport expecting another busy spring break weekend

Airport saw record-breaking day on March 11 with more than 95K departures

ORLANDO, Fla. – Spring break may be over in Orange County but it’s not in some parts of the country.

Orlando International Airport said on March 11, the airport recorded the busiest day in history with over 95,000 departures, breaking the previous single-day record of 90,000 departures back in March 2019.

Officials said this weekend could be even busier.

“We were just set to come back, the girls really wanted to come back and do it all over again and stay a little bit longer and plan it a little bit better this time,” Andrea Barbieri said.

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Barbieri and her family flew in on Friday from St. Louis and they plan to do all four Disney parks, but she said the trip for all five of them did come with a price tag as they shelled out about $1,700 in park tickets.

“There was a little bit of budgeting, you know, we were trying to figure out where we can stay for the least amount of expense and just minimizing the trip instead of doing 7 days, we are only doing 4,” Barbieri said.

Andrew Smith and his family flew in from Long Island on Friday as well.

“You know, spur-of-the-moment, you know, I’m on vacation,” Smith said.

It may have been quick decision to visit Orlando, but Smith said they budgeted for the trip by skipping out on the parks and they plan to enjoy their resort stay instead and visit Disney Springs.

“I just had an idea of what I’m going to spend and how I’m going to reach my goal and how I can spend less because I’m not trying to spend money going out to restaurants. I’m really trying to reserve my money,” Smith said.

According to MCO, in the first two weeks of spring break, an estimated 2.7 million passengers traveled through the airport.

Spring break 2023 runs from March 4 to April 18.

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About the Author:

Ezzy Castro is a multimedia journalist on News 6's morning team who has a passion for telling the stories of the people in the Central Florida community. Ezzy worked at WFOR CBS4 in South Florida and KBMT in Beaumont, Texas, where she covered Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Being from Miami, Ezzy loves Cuban coffee and croquetas!