Orlando limo group says airport should terminate Disney baggage deal
Bob Mervine
Orlando Business Journal
A Central Florida group that represents 200 luxury transportation businesses is calling for an end to Disney’s Magical Express program, which provides free transportation and baggage handling exclusively for guests staying at Disney owned and operated hotels.
The Greater Orlando Livery Association (GOLA) says a ground transportation agreement between the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and Walt Disney World is “an unfair business practice” that gives the Central Florida resort “exclusive and unprecedented access to travelers.”
In a prepared statement, the group asks for an “urgent meeting” with airport officials, including Executive Director Bill Jennings.
“There is great concern the subject contract will provide Disney with a monopoly,” says Orlando attorney Larry Colleton, who represents GOLA. “There will be less and less competition because more and more small businesses who make up GOLA will no longer exist. One must ask whether the aviation authority wants to be the cause of destroying viable small businesses as a direct result of this contract.”
Neither airport officials nor a Walt Disney World spokesman had an immediate response to the claims.
The Magical Express program provides Disney hotel guests with free bus transportation to and from their hotel and the airport. It also allows them to check their baggage at their departing airport and receive it when they check into their hotel. On their return, they check their bags at the Disney hotel and retrieve them when they arrive at their home airport.
The group claims that since Disney initiated the program in May, GOLA members have seen a significant reduction in their business, calling the economic impact immediate and directly correlated to Magical Express.
Colleton hones in on Disney’s access to the airport’s third level where prearranged passengers are met, calling the arrangement “a material breach of Disney’s contract with the airport.”
He notes that a paragraph in the contract permits Disney to only provide the transportation service to people who bought the service in advance as part of their hotel reservations. GOLA claims it has direct information that Disney also offers the service to non-prearranged travelers, people who are potential customers for limousine service from his clients.
Colleton also claims Disney’s access in and behind the carrousel baggage claim area, an area normally restricted to airport and airline baggage handlers, gives the company an unfair advantage over others.
A GOLA spokesman says the group has been unable to maintain a dialogue with airport authorities about the issue.
GOLA spokesman Mark Hopkinson says the group last met with the airport earlier this year and has been unable to schedule further talks. “They have postponed our meeting on several occasions,” Hopkinson says.
About 200 companies who operate more than 600 vehicles that are registered and permitted at the Orlando International Airport are members of GOLA.
Walt Disney World is owned by Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) of Burbank. Disney operates Walt Disney Parks & Resorts; owns ABC television network, 10 broadcast stations and more than 60 radio stations; and produces films through Walt Disney Studios.