Gov. DeSantis Picks Businessman Craig Mateer for Orlando Airport Board
Businessman Craig C. Mateer has been named by Gov. Ron DeSantis as a board member of the authority that runs Orlando’s airports and has had so many vacant seats that it has been unable to reach a quorum recently.
Mateer was the founder and chief executive officer of baggage-handling company Bags Inc. that sold in 2018 for $275 million to a national parking conglomerate.
Last year, Mateer contributed heavily to a political-action committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, with two contributions of $100,000 each in February.
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority has seven seats, two of which are permanently reserved for the mayors of Orlando and Orange County. The other five seats are filled by governor appointments.
But three of those five seats have been vacant for months because of resignations by Randall Hunt, Jason Pirozzolo and former chairman Domingo Sanchez. Those three and a fourth member, Carson Good of Winter Park, were picked by DeSantis at the same time in early 2019.
Good, who is now the chairman of the aviation authority, contributed $5,850 to Friends of Ron DeSantis in late 2018.
Mateer founded CCM Capital Group in 2019 and was part of a years-long dispute over residential property near Boone High School that an Orlando city council member described in 2019 as a “Goliath vs. Goliath” feud. Mateer could not be reached for comment.
Orlando International Airport plunged from record passenger numbers of more than 50 million annually to about half that volume because of the pandemic. Airport concessionaires have struggled with the depressed activity at the airport.
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