FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                    PR 05-39

 

Contact:

Susan M. Sanders, APR, Director/Aviation Marketing

(239) 768-4381, E-mail: smsanders@SWFIA.com

 

 

New Terminal Expects OK for Opening

 

FORT MYERS, Fla. (Aug. 22, 2005)  Lee County is expected to give Southwest Florida International Airport the go-ahead tomorrow to begin the move into its new terminal. The first flight at the new facility is scheduled for Friday morning, Sept. 9, when the public will be allowed into the completed terminal for the first time.

            Final inspections are under way today, and the county plans to issue a temporary certificate of occupancy tomorrow.

            "A temporary CO is not uncommon for a project of this magnitude," said Mary Gibbs, community development director for Lee County. "All major inspections have been completed, and we're delighted to give the Port Authority the OK to begin its move. Formal certificates of occupancy often are not issued for months after large projects begin operations."

            "Our entire team is happy to reach this milestone," said Robert M. Ball, A.A.E., executive director of the Lee County Port Authority. "During the next several weeks, Port Authority employees will move into their new offices, retail and food and beverage concessionaires will train their employees, and airport tenants will become familiar with the new terminal.

            "The transition from the existing terminal to the new terminal is much more than the physical movement of equipment and supplies. It's also learning where things are, how to operate new equipment and finding the way around a terminal that is twice as large as the current one," said Ball.

            Flight operations will move to the new terminal overnight. The final arriving flight late on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 8 will deliver passengers to the existing terminal. The following morning, passengers leaving on early-morning departing flights will be the first to use the new terminal.

            The $438 million project includes the new 798,000-square-foot terminal, a new taxiway and related roadways, and is one of the first built-from-the-ground-up airport terminals in the U.S. to incorporate post-Sept. 11 security mandates into its design.
            The old terminal will be closed and eventually demolished to allow for new commercial opportunities to increase airport revenues.
            Southwest Florida International Airport opened in May 1983. The original master plan projected that the airport would reach its capacity of 3 million passengers by 1995, but that number actually was reached in 1988  seven years earlier than predicted. The airport has served more than 5 million passengers annually since 2000, with more than 6.7 million traveling through the airport during 2004. Site preparation for the new terminal, which has the capacity for 10 million passengers annually, began in November 2001.

            The construction project was funded with grants from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Florida Department of Transportation; airline rents and fees; and other airport revenue, including bonds. No ad valorem (property) taxes are used for airport operation or construction. To learn more, log onto www.flylcpa.com.