Officials at Southwest Florida International Airport want to know how much local demand there is for flights to destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean. So they’re conducting a local survey to find out.

The survey is the first step in determining whether southwest Florida has enough demand to support non-stop flights to destinations like Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Data from this survey will help airport consultants decide whether to move ahead with an in-depth economic impact study for Latin American and Caribbean markets.

Barbara-Anne Urrutia is PR Manager for the Lee County Port Authority.

“We just know based on talking to people and being told things in the community that people keep asking about service to Puerto Rico…service to Mexico. So we’re hoping that now that everyone’s talking it’ll actually turn into action, and maybe we can use that to our benefit so we can get some good service here.”

Urrutia says they’ll use data to try and convince airlines to add non-stop service out of RSW.

She says they did similar surveys for the U.K. and German markets. The German markets won.

The survey is available online at the Southwest Florida International Airport website.

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Airport officials want to know how much demand there is for non-stop flights out of Southwest Florida International Airport to destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America.

So they’ve released a survey seeking that information.

PR Manager for the Lee County Port Authority - Barbara-Anne Urrutia – says the survey’s needed because it’s basically impossible to get what’s called the ‘through’ data…in other words where travelers go after the first leg of their trip.

“We can only get our end of it and beyond that we don’t really know where people are traveling or where they end up. So it’s really hard to get that kind of data…it’s very proprietary among airlines. So that’s why we’re trying to get our own data to show airlines, because it is hard to share information like that.”

Urrutia says if they get at least a thousand responses…and it shows solid demand…their consultants will go ahead with a more in depth economic impact study of Latin American & Caribbean market demand.

She says they’ll then use all this data to try to convince airlines to add non-stop service from Fort Myers to destinations like Mexico and Puerto Rico.