Walt Disney World as the Lake Buena Vista STOLport. During the early 1970s, scheduled passenger service was operated by Shawnee Airlines with small de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter commuter turboprops which had STOL (short take off and landing) capabilities on flights to Tampa and Orlando. The airport is no longer in operation. When the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the site employed about 5,500 "cast members". Today, Walt Disney World employs more than 74,000 cast members, spending more than $1.2 billion on payroll and $474 million on benefits each year. The largest single-site employer in the United States, Walt Disney World has
Orlando, Florida NTC Annex. That closed in 1995, and became a housing, though the former McCoy AFB still hosts a Navy Exchange, as well as National Guard and Reserve units for several branches of service. NTC Orlando was completely closed by the end of 1999. Base Realignment and Closure Commission, and converted into the Baldwin Park neighborhood. The Naval Air Warfare Center had moved to Central Florida Research Park near UCF in 1989. Perhaps the most critical event for Orlando's economy occurred in 1965 when Walt Disney announced plans to build Walt Disney World. Although Disney had considered the regions of Miami