Airport traffic rebounds sharply

FORT MYERS — Airline passenger traffic at Southwest Florida International Airport jumped 10.4% in September compared with the same month in 2014, boding well for the busy winter tourism season.

The increase contrasts with earlier summer months, when airline mergers and consolidations slowed passenger traffic. For example, when Southwest acquired AirTran, some routes from Fort Myers were scrapped due to overlapping.

But as winter approaches, airlines are adding larger planes with more seats in anticipation of a busy tourism season. In September, 404,045 passengers passed through the Fort Myers airport. For the year through September, passenger traffic is up 4.1% over the same nine months in 2014.

Delta carried the most passengers into and out of Fort Myers in September, with 91,912 people. The next four biggest carriers were Southwest (79,932 passengers), JetBlue (56,066), USAirways (39,663) and American (29,062).