Airport breaks December record

FORT MYERS — The tourists are back.

Southwest Florida International Airport posted a record-breaking month in December with 765,288 passengers passing through the Fort Myers airport, a 4% increase over the same month in 2013.

“Following 13 consecutive months of increased passenger traffic, December 2014 was the best December in Southwest Florida International Airport's 31-year history and our performance for the year was the best since 2007,” says Robert Ball, the executive director of the Lee County Port Authority, in a statement. “More people are traveling to our region, filling the flights our airline partners are operating into RSW, and we look forward to a great winter travel season.”

More than 7.9 million passengers passed through the airport in 2014, ranking it among the top 50 U.S. airports for passenger traffic. For the year, passenger traffic rose 4.4% compared with 2013.

Passenger growth came despite fewer flights in December. The airport reported 7,611 aircraft takeoffs and landings, a 2.2% drop compared to December 2013. The traffic leader in December was Delta with 165,177 passengers traveling to and from Fort Myers. The other top airlines were Southwest (136,729 passengers), JetBlue (87,373), Spirit (78,692) and US Airways (74,980).