Chairman’s resignation a part of Orlando airport’s struggles
Sanchez requested no public announcement be made, staff said
Orlando airport authority chairman Domingo Sanchez has resigned after more than eight years with the agency but without making a public announcement, wanting a quiet departure to spend more time with his family and business, airport staff said.
Sanchez, 45, a resident of Osceola
County, was named chairman of the seven-member board in
March last year and was reappointed for the role in April as Orlando’s airport, ranking early this year as the busiest in Florida, was made a ghost town by the pandemic.
“He served well beyond his term and he has family commitments and business commitments,” said airport director Phil Brown. “I think he felt it was time. He enjoyed his service, but it’s hard for everybody right now and he gets no pay for doing this.”
Sanchez, with a background in real estate and a principal in Birdsong Property Management and Artemis Lifestyle Services, could not be reached for comment. He submitted his resignation in a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday after a board meeting, requesting of airport staff that no public announcement be made.
Sanchez replaced longtime chairman Frank Kruppenbacher, a politically active lawyer embroiled in allegations over improper behavior and spending at the Florida Virtual School, where he had been employed as general counsel.
By late last year, Sanchez’s tenure as chairman had been marked by allegations of a possible violation of Florida’s openmeetings law. He and other board members appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis had backed a plan to replace longtime airport