I don’t know if this is the right place for this question, but does anyone have suggestions on the best/closest airport to use to fly to Ocala from Pittsburgh, without having to make a lot of (or any) connections?
I like flying into Gainesville and I had a direct flight to DFW. Gainesville was tiny and easy to navigate.
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Orlando is the closest major airport, but it’s a little bit of a nightmare since it’s a big place and there are usually lots of people going to and from Disney World.
I know people who fly in and out of Tampa instead, which is not too much further, but easier to navigate.
I have thought of using Jacksonville, but I have not tried that yet.
Gainesville is the closest, but because it’s small, your flight options might be limited.
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I think Tampa would be your best bet, with Orlando a close second
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I agree with Tampa as a suggestion. Extremely easy in and out, well-designed, and only a few minutes longer than driving from Orlando. I also know some who fly into Gainesville but connect through Charlotte, and prices are higher than direct to TPA.
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Oof… Pittsburgh is tough. That’s a smallish airport.
Do you have Silver Airways or Allegiant? Both fly into Sanford which is near Orlando but a lot less crazy.
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Gainesville is also my recommendation. Super small airport, shortest drive to Ocala by a lot. You might have to go through Charlotte (AA) or Atlanta (Delta) but not having to deal with Orlando is absolutely worth it.
Only caveat is that if your flight is getting in late and is delayed, you may be SOL with the rental car situation.
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Orlando will be the cheapest and have the best selection of flight times. It’s always been smooth for me going in and out of there… but I would not recommend flying in during spring break time.
Pro tip; when you get to the car rental area there’s a line suuuuper long and sometimes it’s so long you may think it’s for the car rental. It is not. It is for the Disney shuttle. The amount of people who stand in that line just to realize after an hour they are standing in line for a Disney bus….
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We fly into MCO (Orlando) frequently to go to Disney and I don’t find it worse than any other airport, other than getting a rental car which is only confusing due to the different levels of the airport. If you are renting a car, sign up for/ get the membership thing - for Budget it’s called FastBreak. We signed up for it for free and can skip the check in counter, instead we go straight to the cars and grab the keys and go. It’s wonderful.
We’ve also flown in to Tampa (nice airport) and driven from Tampa to WEC. Personally I wouldn’t choose to add more drive time (2 hours?) just to fly in to Tampa.
Never flown to Gainesville but if it’s closest that would be my choice. If no flights there, Orlando isn’t bad.
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Gainesville
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Gainesville is the closest but not most economical or best schedule.
I would do Tampa over Orlando all things being equal.
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I’ve done Jacksonville and Daytona in addition to Orlando. Orlando will have the best prices and most flexibility. Jacksonville wasn’t bad last year though, I think I got a round trip flight for $250 on JetBlue out of Boston. Very easy to navigate the airport and not too big. Daytona is also smaller and almost the same distance as Orlando. You have lots of options and all have pros/cons. Just shop around for the best price against the timing you need to achieve.
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I had a farm in Ocala for five years and flew back home to visit my parents in central Ohio regularly.
Gainesville is such a wonderful little airport, I’m much happier flying through small quiet airports. They added two gates before I left Ocala, up to six, woohoo! 
It’s small and easy to navigate, and a super easy drive down to WEC.
Mainly Delta flies out of Gainesville, so if you aren’t flying from a Delta hub, you’re most likely going to have at least one connection. Looks like flights from Pittsburgh to Gainesville are pretty reasonably priced (<$300) with one connection. The connection is almost always going to be Atlanta or Charlotte.
I flew out of Orlando a lot too, and it’s at the point that it’s just a freaking nightmare. Orlando is always going to have the cheapest flights with no connections, but so many people are going through there for Disney, the lines at security are insane, much less car rentals or anything else; I definitely recommend Tampa over Orlando for mental peace. I live outside Tampa now, and I think the longest I’ve ever waited in security lines was 15 minutes. The drive from either is going to hit traffic south of Ocala at the 75/turnpike junction, and since WEC opened up it’s quite often stopped from Ocala to the turnpike. But there’s some back roads from Orlando that are tolerable if you want to avoid the turnpike. Not a lot of back road options from Tampa, as far as the drive.
Orlando Sanford is a good option if you have Allegiant. Much smaller airport, when I flew out of there once I drove east out 40 then down south, traffic was very light.
I had family use Jacksonville two different times. No idea what the airport was like. The drive kind of sucks, though. Not usually terrible traffic, but no highways, just through towns, so tons of speed traps.
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You guys are absolutely awesome! So much great information. Thank you so much!!
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Spirit flies from Pitt to Tampa, if you need cheap no frills
This has not been our experience, like at all. We’ve flown there several times in the past 3 now 4 years (we’re going in Feb and again in April) and the longest wait we’ve ever had at security was maybe 30 min (including our April trips that overlap some spring break). Maybe it’s because we try not to fly in or out on the weekends (though we certainly have, as recently as Nov). The biggest issue we had was the Budget line during our first trip but that has been subsequently avoided using the free FastBreak service.
Lucky you! I guess I flew at terrible times, because I’ve almost never had a pleasant experience at Orlando airport.
Same. The security lines are long and hellish. Rental car lines are a pain. Everything is a production.
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With Hertz gold or whatever (go straight to garage counter or car) and precheck and Clear I have done ok with Orlando. It is closer and I am usually barely making it to the airport on Sunday, I have to fly back and forth each show. It is absolutely true that it is not a nice airport, but it is cheap, relatively, with a lot of flights to my city, in case I miss mine. I will only fly non-stop.
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Orlando is definitely a place to explore your options for speeding up the rental car process. The lines are ridiculous.
And I agree with the earlier comment to make sure you’re standing in the right line, because there are a LOT of them in that place.
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