February airport's busiest
Traffic up nearly 9 percent

More than 841,000 passengers traveled through Southwest Florida International Airport in February making it the busiest February in the airport's 23-year-history. Passenger traffic increased nearly 9 percent from last February. It was also up 7.5 percent from the month prior, which was the busiest January on record. Year-todate traffic is up 8.3 percent compared to this time last year.

AirTran led the way in February with 101,261 passengers traveling to and from Fort Myers. The other airlines that rounded out the top five were US Airways (97,133), Delta (87,510), Spirit (82,488) and JetBlue (80,292). International passenger traffic increased 42 percent compared to last February.

Airfreight was up almost 4 percent compared to February 2006 and set a new record for the month with more than 3.4 million pounds moving through the airport. Year-to-date freight activity is almost 5 percent more than last year at this time with almost 7 million pounds.

Page Field General Aviation Airport, also operated by the Lee County Port Authority, saw an increase in aircraft movements of over 8 percent in February. In addition, operations are up almost 4 percent at the general aviation airport compared to last year.

Southwest Florida International Airport served more than 7.6 million passengers in 2006 and is one of the top 50 busiest U.S. airports. ¦