Orlando Sanford International Airport

Orlando Sanford International is the secondary commercial airport for the Orlando metropolitan area, handling roughly 3.5M passengers (2024) across 191 weekly routes to 159 destinations on 17 airlines — an unusually high destination count for an airport of its size, reflecting Sanford's role as the principal U.S. base of Allegiant Air, the ultra-low-cost carrier that specializes in point-to-point leisure routes from small and mid-sized cities to vacation markets. SFB is effectively Allegiant's dedicated Orlando gateway, and the carrier operates the majority of daily departures here. The airport sits 29 km (18 mi) northeast of downtown Orlando in the city of Sanford on the shore of Lake Monroe, substantially further from the Disney and Universal theme parks than Orlando International (MCO). Its distance from the main tourist corridor is offset by significantly lower airport costs, which support Allegiant's low-fare, low-frequency business model. The airport also hosts a large British charter and European low-cost market — TUI Airways, Thomas Cook's successor operations, and seasonal Icelandair service connect SFB to the UK, Ireland, Iceland, and continental Europe, positioning SFB as an alternate transatlantic entry for Florida leisure travelers. SFB sits at 55 ft (17 m) elevation with four runways, the primary being 11,002 ft (3,354 m) capable of accommodating transatlantic widebodies. Secondary runways at 6,002 ft (1,830 m), 5,839 ft (1,780 m), and 3,578 ft (1,090 m) support general aviation, flight training (SFB is the home of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach satellite training operations and a major FAA flight-school cluster), and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection federal inspection station that handles international arrivals. A recent $60M terminal expansion added gate capacity for future international growth.