Melbourne's airport on track to host TUI air service from Europe, starting in 2022
Dave Berman
The coronavirus pandemic has brought international leisure travel to a virtual standstill. But Orlando Melbourne International Airport officials say plans are still on track to bring regularly scheduled international flights by TUI Airlines here from England and Scotland, starting in April 2022.
The plan — first announced one year ago — would make the Melbourne airport the Florida gateway for TUI UK, the United Kingdom's largest vacation provider.
Rob Himler, the airport's manager of marketing and communications, said TUI began selling tickets this month for the flights.
"We see a light at the end of the tunnel," Himler said.
More:TUI to fly 156,000 UK tourists to Melbourne per year, generating 'tremendous' impact
More:British cruise line Marella to sail from Port Canaveral in 2021
Plans call for TUI Airways to offer two to three flights a day to Melbourne on 300- to 345-passenger Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets.
Himler said the Melbourne airport has been working to attract TUI since 2015. But the company rebuffed those overtures at the time because of the airport's outdated facilities.
TUI changed its mind after the airport initiated a major upgrade to its runways, air-traffic-control tower and the international section of the terminal building, largely funded by federal and state grants, along with money generated by airport revenue from its operations.
Himler said TUI's decision to move its Central Florida gateway to the Melbourne airport from Orlando Sanford International Airport could mean at least 130,000 European visitors a year entering the country in Melbourne, based on the past TUI passenger volume in Sanford.
"It's historical," Himler said. "This is something that we've been needing for so long, something that we've worked for for so long. And it's finally happening. This is happening. We have a signed agreement with them. And they're coming in 2022."
Admittedly, many of the travelers from Britain will head to the Orlando-area attractions for at least part of their vacation. But the airport expects about 40% of the passengers will rent cars, rather than be part of a formal tour group, meaning that they will have the flexibility to stay at Space Coast hotels, and visit local attractions and beaches.
"This is our chance to bring them to the zoo. This is our chance to bring them to the Space Center and our beaches and all that we have to offer," Himler said during a recent presentation to the Brevard County Tourist Development Council.
United Kingdom travelers are relatively big spenders when on vacation, staying an average of nine nights and spending an average of $3,241 per person.
Himler said he expects the "pent-up demand" for vacation travel by 2022 will make the TUI flights to Melbourne popular.
Under TUI's seven-year agreement with the Melbourne airport, Orlando Melbourne International Airport will be the only Florida airport other than Miami International Airport that TUI can fly into from 2022 to 2029.
Terminal upgrades planned
The Melbourne airport has begun design work on $30 million in terminal renovations, including new ticketing, checkpoint and baggage area, as well as upgrades to dining and retail concessions, funded by grants from the Federal Aviation Authority, the Florida Department of Transportation and airport revenue. The airport's customs areas was upgraded in 2016 in a $9 million project designed to handle the new international traffic, and soon will be expanded even more.
"Three planes on the ground at once — that's quite a lot of people coming through customs," Himler said.
"We want them to know that, when they're here, it's going to be a seamless airport experience," Himler said.
The project also will include a new "welcome center" for TUI's international passengers.
"They want them to have that special experience, that concierge service, and that's exactly what we intend to give them," Himler said. "When it comes to our community, we need everyone to be prepared to welcome them to the Space Coast like they've never been welcomed before. These people are going to be the ones that are going to be returning back on TUI a few years later, or telling their friends over in the UK to bring their families."
When the deal was first announced, Dawn Wilson, managing director at TUI Airways, said the Melbourne airport "will be perfectly situated to offer TUI UK customers total flexibility in designing their holiday around any combination of theme parks, beaches or cruising."
Melbourne Airport Authority Chairman Jack Ryals called the agreement "a major win for Melbourne and our entire region."
Himler said the airport wants its deal with TUI to extend further than the initial seven years.
"We want this to be decades," Himler said.
The TUI Group is the world's leading tourism group, consisting of tour operators, 1,600 travel agencies, six airlines operating 150 aircraft worldwide, more than 380 hotels and resorts, 17 cruise ships, and 70,000 employees in more than 100 countries.
Cruise ship addition
Separately, a TUI subsidiary, Marella Cruises, announced last November that it plans to base its Marella Discovery at Port Canaveral, potentially as early as 2021. The Marella Discovery has a guest capacity of 1,830, based on double-occupancy. It would be the first Marella ship based in the United States.
The cruise line said it would offer a variety of itineraries from Port Canaveral. Among the ports-of-call the Marella Discovery will stop at are Charleston, South Carolina; New York City; Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas; Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; Norfolk, Virginia; Key West; Miami; Tampa; Fort Lauderdale; and New Orleans.
Himler said, with the addition of the cruise ship, combined with the air service, TUI expects more than 150,000 customers to come to the Space Coast through the Melbourne airport in its first year of operations here.
"It's exciting stuff," Tourist Development Council Chairman Giles Malone told Himler after his presentation. "It's a lot of people. It's really great."
Domestic flight status
For now, the airport has seen a small recovery in domestic flight volume, with American Airlines and Delta Air Lines now flying several times a day out of Melbourne. They had been flying as infrequently as once a day at the height of the pandemic.
Delta flies nonstop to Atlanta, and American flies nonstop to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Total passenger counts — including arrivals and departures — from Melbourne are down 53.0% for the first 10 months of 2020, compared with 2019 figures, with total air carrier flights down 32.0%, largely because of the pandemic.
The worst month was April, when passenger counts were down 93.5% from April 2019 figures, with an average of only 90 passengers a day arriving at or departing from Melbourne. That figure has improved each month since then, with the October figure down 52.7%, compared with October 2019.
A private developer plans to build a 140-room Hyatt Place hotel on property leased from the airport, not far from the terminal building.
Dave Berman is government editor at FLORIDA TODAY.
Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @bydaveberman