Melbourne Orlando International Airport

MELBOURNE ORLANDO INTERNAT IONAL A I RPORT Director of the Melbourne Orlando International Airport (MLB). “That’s how it all started, as a Naval Air Station where pilots trained in Grumman Hellcats and Grumman Wildcat fighters. This was their final training before they went to war. We have a deep heritage here with the Navy, but the airport was turned over to the local government after the war. Our airport authority was created in the late 1960s, and we have run the airport as businesslike as possible since then. We’re very proud that every dollar we generate is put back into the airport. In addition, we have become a major factor in the local economy to the tune of $3 billion a year.” The airport now sees a daily population of 20,000 people on the airport campus any given day. Donovan came to MLB seven years ago, from his former role as the Director of Pensacola International Airport. He recounts, “The first thing we did when I came on board was assess the condition of our facilities. All of our runways were in really bad shape. In fact, all the airport infrastructure was in rough shape. Take our tower for example, which was the oldest commercial tower in the State of Florida. You would have a 747 or a wide-body aircraft taxi past and it was completely hidden.” The tower has since been rebuilt, along with much of the airport’s other infrastructure. All runways were also completely rebuilt, including its largest 10,181-foot runway, a parallel 6000-foot runway, and a general aviation aircraft runway that is 3000 feet. Donovan reports, “We are now removing and reworking large areas of our commercial aircraft apron to prepare for air service growth and larger passenger aircraft. In some cases, the pavement goes back to World War II. We’ve created piles of concrete and it’s kind of interesting because there are different grades broken down into different sections. What we are now doing is taking all the old pavement and all the old base material and grinding and filtering that and then re-using it in construction. This is Photo Courtesy of Walt Simpson