Orlando Airport Small Business Program: GOAA Widens Access After a Year of Expansion at MCO

November 15, 2026 Claire Donovan

GOAA has raised its Local Disadvantaged Business threshold and launched a Florida-wide Small Business program at Orlando International Airport — in the same year-end report as new Terminal C gates, a train-station bridge and planning for 8,000 more parking spaces.

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TOURIST NEWS · ORLANDO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority is widening the door for small businesses that want a piece of the airport economy — adjusting its Local Disadvantaged Business program and launching a new Florida-wide Small Business program — in the same year-end report that catalogues a year of expansion at Orlando International Airport: new Terminal C gates, a pedestrian bridge to the train station, and planning for two new parking garages with 8,000 spaces.

The small-business changes

Under the changes GOAA announced in its fiscal 2026 progress release, the Local Disadvantaged Business (LDB) program’s personal-net-worth threshold is adjusted upward and its exclusions clarified — primary residence, business equity, retirement accounts and non-liquid assets treated explicitly — while business size standards across the program are revised for inflation and operating costs.

Alongside it, a new Small Business program, open Florida-wide, complements the LDB program: owners qualify if they fall within 50 percent of the applicable SBA federal size standards. GOAA says guidelines for the new program will appear on its website soon.

For Orlando residents, this is the part of the airport story that lands at home. MCO’s construction and concessions machine runs on contracts — food, retail, services, building trades — and who qualifies to bid for them decides how much of the region’s nearly 58 million annual passengers’ spending stays with local firms. A wider threshold means more Orange County businesses can compete for that work.

A year of building at MCO

The same release recaps the physical expansion: Terminal C’s new wing, Gates 250–254, is the new home of Virgin Atlantic; an enclosed pedestrian bridge now links the Train Station to Terminal C; three Family Zones have opened; and a Parking Guidance System in Terminal C is in phased activation, extending to all garages by mid-2027, alongside dedicated employee parking.

Further out, planning has started for two new garages adding 8,000 public spaces in the next few years — a direct answer to the holiday-season parking crunches every local who has circled MCO in December knows well. The airport is also spending $40 million on its Beautiful Airports Program.

The investment list runs beyond the terminals: a $50 million dnata investment, a $26 million redevelopment at MCO by Lake Nona-based Signature Aviation, and a $40 million Sky Harbour campus groundbreaking at Orlando Executive Airport. New service in the period: ZIPAIR’s first passenger charter between Florida and Asia-Pacific, an Orlando–Tokyo nonstop, and Iberia’s nonstop Orlando–Madrid.

More from this desk: the Tourist News hub, our Tourism coverage, and the numbers behind the growth — Orlando International Airport Passenger Numbers: 4.38 Million Flew Through MCO in August.

Sources & notes

Greater Orlando Aviation Authority press release, flymco.com, October 21, 2026 — “GOAA Marks Progress in FY 2026; Sets New Policies for Small Businesses.” All figures, project values and program details in this story are drawn from that release; no figure from secondary coverage is used.

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