From county to regional

By 1973, the population explosion taking place in Southwest Florida made it obvious that the present facility was inadequate. Studies indicated the terminal at Page Field was too small, the 6,400 foot runways were too short to handle the modern jets. Something had to be done at once and even as Lee County Commissioners authorized construction of a new $850,000 terminal at Page Field, they realized this would not be sufficient for long.

According to former County Commissioner Harry Rodda writing in the October 17, 1984 edition of The Newspaper, "The concept of a regional airport was conceived in 1973 by a group of local citizens, most notably Malcolm Schroeder."

The Metropolitan Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce had formed an Airline Services Committee with Schroeder, then president of First Florida Bank, as chairman.

The committee's mission was to determine whether to expand Page Field or build a new airport. The committee was also to determine whether there was need for the area to be served by another major carrier.

It was time for a move, but any and all changes were subject to the approval of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and the CAB had declared a moratorium on new routes in 1969.

Schroeder initiated discussions with officials at Eastern and Delta Airlines. According to an interview with Schroeder published in Gulfshore Life magazine in May of 1986, "Delta said if Fort Myers could prove that the growth of the area indicated a need for more airline service, and the potential for airline profits was there, it would try to get CAB approval."

The article, entitled "Flying High" and written by Cheryl Koening, continued, "The studies also showed that commercial air passenger traffic had increased 100 percent every three years since 1938.

"All of this established a community in need," Schroeder told Koening. "We were able to show that this was a very large metropolitan area and the only one that didn't have access to Atlanta, the only gateway to the Southeast."

Once the need was established, Delta, Eastern, Southern and United Airlines filed to serve Fort Myers. A hearing held in 1975 awarded Eastern the route and Eastern started service on December 10 of the same year.

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