Airport Ambition

As the eighth fastest growing airport in the United States, Southwest Florida International Airport is busting at the gates, so to speak. The 16-year-old airport continues to break all-time records for traffic -- more than 4.6 million passengers in 1998, and already up to 2.5 million for the first five recorded months of 1999. Freight traffic has increased just a dramatically, growing from 1.56 million pounds passing through the airport in 1983 to 28.5 million in 1998.

The growth spurt is far from over. From 1995 to 2010, the Federal Aviation Administration has predicted a 96 percent increase in passenger traffic and an increase in daily average aircraft operations from 183 takeoffs and landings to 305.

To keep up with all that growth, the Lee County Port Authority has come up with the region's most ambitious aviation ever, a $386 million project including a completely new terminal building, parking garage and roadway access -- all to be located on a 3,000-acre plot just southwest of the present-day facility.

The project calls for a new, 685,000 square-foot terminal building at a cost of $157 million. The two-story building will have three concourses leading to 28 aircraft gates, with a potential to add two more concourses and expand to 65 gates. The existing airport has 17 gates.

A three-story parking garage located close to the terminal is planned to accommodate rental car facilities and 2,200 hourly parking spaces. Another 9,800 spaces and 1,300 employee spaces will be located at another lot with shuttle access to the terminal.

Also included in the project is a new taxiway leading from the new terminal to the airport's 12,000-foot runway (one of the few items at the existing airport that will remain the same). And to accommodate a new roadway to the terminal, the project calls for the extension of Treeline Road south to Alico Road, making a second I-75 access point in addition to Daniels Parkway.

The Lee County Port Authority Board of Port Commissioners approved the project's design phase during an August meeting. As that phase progresses, the next step will be to begin the four-year construction project, pending approval. Site preparation could begin as early as next year, with a best-case-scenario completion date in January 2005.

The project will be funded with grants from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Florida Department of Transportation; airline rents and fees and other airport revenue. No property taxes are being used for the project.