Airport breaks February passenger record

FORT MYERS — Passenger traffic at Southwest Florida International Airport rose 5% in February compared with the same month a year ago and broke the record for the month.

“In spite of 231 flight cancellations in February due to weather conditions throughout the U.S., Southwest Florida International Airport still experienced the best February in our 32-year history,” says Robert Ball, executive director of the Lee County Port Authority, in a statement.

During February, 906,039 passengers traveled through the Fort Myers airport, an increase of 5% compared to February 2014. Year-to-date, passenger traffic is up 7.3% from the same period last year. More than 7.9 million passengers passed through Southwest Florida International Airport last year, ranking it among the top 50 U.S. airports for passenger traffic.

The traffic leader in February was Southwest with 201,509 passengers traveling to and from Fort Myers. The others included Delta (192,055 passengers), JetBlue (98,096), US Airways (93,080) and Spirit (82,222).