Airport chief flies into retirement

NAPLES — Ted Soliday, executive director of the Naples Municipal Airport for more than 20 years, is retiring in April 2016.

The City of Naples Airport Authority will select a firm later this month to search for Soliday's successor.

The Naples airport caters to private aircraft and has not had regularly scheduled passenger traffic since Delta Connection and smaller carriers pulled out in 2007. Competition from Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers combined with the recession kept commercial airlines from reconsidering the small airport. Recent discussions Naples airport officials had with discount airline JetBlue, about flying passengers from New York City area airports, didn't result in any new service.

Despite the lack of commercial traffic, the Naples airport reported 95,120 takeoffs and landings in the most recent fiscal year.