Passenger traffic dips at International Airport
First decrease in nearly two years
SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY

After months of setting records for traffic, passengers traveling through Southwest Florida International Airport dropped over the previous year for the first time since July 2006.

During November more than 650,000 passengers traveled through the airport, a decrease of 1.4 percent compared to November 2006. Yearto date, passenger traffic, however, still remains strong - up 6.4 percent over the same period last year.

"Our air carriers are increasing flight schedules in time for the busy winter travel season," said Robert Ball, executive director of the Lee County Port Authority. "We look forward to continued strong passenger traffic at South Florida International Airport."

The traffic leader for November was Air Tran with 79,695 passengers traveling to and from Fort Myers. Rounding out the top five airlines were JetBlue (78,310), Delta (70,336), Southwest (68,277), and Continental (59,356).

There were 7,914 aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings) recorded at Southwest Florida International, an increase of 10.3 percent over November 2006. Page Field General Aviation Airport saw 6,860 movements. In addition, nearly 3.2 million pounds of air freight moved through both airports in November 2007.

Southwest Florida International Airport served more than 7.6 million passengers in 2006 and is one of the top 50 busiest U.S. airports. For more information, log onto www.flylcpa.com

Airport passenger traffic