ORLANDO, FL – Two gas stations near Orlando International Airport are getting stiff pricing competition from Wawa, which opened a block away from the stations that have been notorious for charging record-high gas prices, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

When it opened last week, Wawa was offering gas at $2.99 per gallon, far below Sun Gas and Suncoast Energys, whose prices remained at $5.95 and $5.99.

Both Sun Gas and Suncoast Energys have made news lately, as they were sued by the city to force them to post pricing signage. Without such roadside information, motorists in route to the airport in need of topping off their rental cars incurred sticker shock prices, a negative last impression that Orlando city officials hoped to eliminate.

"This is ridiculous," said Joseph Kutka last week after paying $70.40 to gas up his rental at Suncoast Energys before catching a flight back to Wisconsin. "They're scamming their customers. I would have stopped somewhere else if I'd known."

After years of complaints, will Wawa and the free market force prices lower? It's possible.

"At this point, we haven't made a decision," Sun Gas co-owner Larry Nieves said last week. "We haven't decided what we're going to do."

On his many business trips to Orlando, Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens would shake his head as he passed the gas stations just outside the airport.

"Every time I rode by there, I'd think to myself, 'Boy, we need to bring some competition to this corner,'" Gheysens said.

While the city passed a law that required the stations to post their prices on roadside signs, the stations sued. The city won, but the new signs are often concealed.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer hopes competition will be the thing that finally prompts the stations to be more transparent in their pricing.

"You think about the Orlando experience that we try to create … and then the last thing visitors have happen to them in Orlando is to be price-gouged," Dyer said. "I've had people say, 'I'll never come back' because of that."