Tram trouble at OIA causes 51 people to miss flights

Orlando International Airport officials say a tram stopped working Sunday afternoon, causing dozens of people to miss their flights.

This is the second time the same tram has had problems in the last five days.

“It just seems like it was pretty chaotic,” said Bill Ferrante, who is from Orlando and was traveling through the airport.

After going through security, the tram takes travelers to the gates.

Airport officials say the tram with mechanical problems also shut down on Wednesday.

It takes passengers to gates 30-59.

The first time it stopped working for nearly three hours, leaving thousands of people in long lines.

Sunday, officials say it was out of commission for about 40 minutes and 51 people missed their flights.

Ferrante is grateful he got to his plane.

“There was a deep sea of people that wasn’t really moving," he said. "The tram was continuing to dump people off like right behind us who didn’t have any place to walk and it was kind of chaotic with no information."
 
Airport officials say a few days ago people were told to get on another tram and then take buses to the gates.

They say they also opened up a walkway.

They tell us the tram that broke down is brand new and they’re still working out the bugs.

“I think it’s frustrating,” said Deborah Marshall, who travels often. “This is a very, very busy airport and it seems that there are some complications that are needing to be addressed.”

An OIA spokesperson says it’s unclear whether the recent mechanical problem was connected to Wednesday’s issues.