More travelers to South Florida's airports
New flights, cruise ships and cruise ventures will bring more travelers to South Florida's airports and cruise ports in 2015, officials say.
"We anticipate 2015 to be the busiest year in the airport's history with passenger counts projected to reach 25 million," said Greg Meyer, spokesman for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Total passenger traffic for the first nine months of 2015 is expected to jump about 10 percent over the same period in 2014, said Steve Belleme, the airport's business development manager.
International passenger traffic, in particular, shows "pretty good growth" for January through September, Belleme said.
In 2014, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood added four international airlines: Copa, Tame, Volaris and Azul Brazilian.
All four carriers "seem to be doing well and exceeding their initial expectations," Meyer said.
New flights on tap for 2015 include Frontier Airlines' service to St. Louis starting Thursday and Spirit Airlines' route to Cleveland beginning Feb. 5. Azul also plans to add a second flight between Fort Lauderdale and Sao Paulo/Campinas, Brazil, in January.
As of October 2014, the Fort Lauderdale airport handled 20.2 million passengers, compared with 23.6 million for all of 2013, according to the latest airport data. Final passenger numbers for 2014 are incomplete.