History
RSW was first conceived in 1973, when it became apparent that the existing airport in Fort Myers, Page Field, would not be able to accommodate new aircraft and increased traffic. The government of Lee County selected a site near Interstate 75, which was under construction at the time. Groundbreaking was held in 1980, and Southwest Florida Regional Airport opened on schedule, May 14, 1983, with a single 8400-ft runway. Delta Air Lines operated the inaugural flight.
The airport was renamed Southwest Florida International Airport in 1993, although it had hosted international flights since 1984 and U.S. Customs since 1987, primarily for services to Germany. Also in 1993, the runway was lengthened to 12,000 ft (3,658 m), designed to accommodate increased international traffic. However, while the airport has hosted Boeing 747s (and notably, the U.S. President's Air Force One), as of 2009, the largest aircraft to use the airport for regularly scheduled service are the Airbus A330-300s operated by Air Berlin on non stop flights to Düsseldorf.
Read more about this topic: Southwest Florida International Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)