Airport sets another traffic record

COURTESY PHOTO Passenger totals at Southwest Florida International Airport increased again making this the ninth straight month of recordbreaking traffic. During the month of April, nearly 925,000 passengers traveled through the airport, making it the busiest April in the airport's 24-year-history.

"Our airport has seen sustained growth in traffic this year and the results for the month of April continue to reaffirm this," said Robert M. Ball, executive director of the Lee County Port Authority. "Although the spring season peaks at Easter, which occurred early in April this year, we continued to see an escalation in passenger totals."

Total passengers for April 2007 had a significant increase of over 9 percent compared to April 2006. Currently, passenger traffic is up 8.5 percent year-to-date. In addition, there were 10,181 aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings) recorded, representing another record for the month of April.

Leading the way for the month of April was US Airways with 110,374 passengers traveling to and from Fort Myers. Other airlines included in the top five were Jet- Blue Airways (107,082), Delta (96,305), AirTran (94,276) and Continental Airlines (88,985). International passenger traffic had an increase of 3.6 percent compared to last April and an over 27.6 percent increase year-to-date.

Nearly 3 million pounds of air freight moved through Southwest Florida International Airport in April. Over 13.9 million pounds have moved through the airport year-to-date which is an increase of 1.64 percent compared to last year at this time.

Southwest Florida International Airport served more than 7.6 million passengers in 2006 and is one of the top 50 busiest U.S. airports. No property taxes are used for airport operation or construction. For more information, log onto www.flylcpa.