Florida airports battle over using the name 'Orlando'

There's a battle brewing among three Florida airports about who can use the word "Orlando" in their names.

Officials from the board which runs Orlando International Airport in Orlando are objecting to the use of the name "Orlando" by the Orlando Melbourne International Airport on the Atlantic Coasts and by the Orlando Sanford International Airport that's on the periphery of the greater Orlando area near a town called Sanford.

The Melbourne airport is about 70 miles from downtown Orlando while the Sanford airport is about 25 miles away. Orlando International, the region's main airport, is about 10 miles from central Orlando. 

LOCAL REPORT/IN-DEPTH: Mayor to Orlando airport: No to name-dispute settlement (FLORIDA TODAY)

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Officials with the Orlando airport and Melbourne airport met Wednesday in an effort to seek common ground, but no agreement was reached.

Local media reports the parties agreed to meet in the future.

Officials with the primary Orlando airport say the use of the name "Orlando" by other airports confuses travelers who think they flying to Orlando but instead end up dozens of miles away.

"We want to make sure that when people come to Central Florida, they're not dismayed when they arrive at the Melbourne International Airport and discover that they are perhaps an hour — maybe more than an hour's drive — away from Orlando and they thought they were actually flying into the Orlando airport," Stephen Luther, a patent attorney representing the authority that operates Orlando International, is quoted as saying by FLORIDA TODAY.

Leslie Lott, an intellectual-property lawyer representing Melbourne's airport, labeled the squabble “a fight looking for a problem to justify itself" while speaking at the same Wednesday meeting as Luther. She noted that tourist attractions are spread across the sprawling area around the city itself. 

"How far away the Orlando-Melbourne airport is depends on whether you're going to Legoland, or Disney cruises, or what they call the Port of Orlando — which is Port Canaveral — or whether you're going to Lake Buena Vista and Disney," Lott said to an audience that included boards of the authorities of both the Orlando and Melbourne airports.    

Additionally, the Melbourne airport on the Atlantic coast says using "Orlando" has helped increase clicks on the Internet.

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Material from FLORIDA TODAY and The Associated Press were used in this post. 

USA TODAY: Orlando International Airport guide

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