During March, 1,073,556 passenger traveled through Southwest Florida International Airport, an increase of 7.7percent compared to March 2010.

This is the second largest monthly passenger count in the airport’s history and the fourth time the airport has exceeded one million passengers in a month, says Victoria B . Moreland, director of public affairs.

Year-to-date, passenger traffic is up 4.3percent from the same period last year.The traffic leader in March was Delta with 225,435 passengers traveling to and from Fort Myers, Moreland said.

Rounding out the top five airlines were AirTran (193,486), Jet Blue (126,444), Southwest (117,202) and US Airways(95,240).

Southwest Florida International Airport had 10,603 aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings), an increase of 8.2 percent compared to March 2010.

She said that Page Field saw 7,991 movements, a 7 percent increase from March 2010. In addition, more than 3.3 million pounds of air freight moved through Southwest Florida International Airport in March 2011, an increase of 1.2percent compared to March 2010, she said.

Southwest Florida International Airport served more than 7.5million passengers in 2010 and is one of the top 50 U.S. airports for passenger traffic. No ad valorem (property) taxes are used for airport operation or construction.