"Fly away," Ft. Lauderdale mayor tells cruise passengers

The mayor of Ft. Lauderdale suggests that airport capacity limitations in the city can be solved by...forbidding cruise passengers from using the airport. Really? At the U.S. port with the largest number of cruise ships departing?

At least, that's what the Sun-Sentinel reports that Mayor Jim Naugle said on Thursday. He'd rather protect the available seats at the Ft. Lauderdale airport for the conventioners who drop more cash during their visits than the cruise passengers.

And how would that work, exactly? Would the airline reject reservations unless you could provide documentation that you weren't getting on a cruise ship?

Adding potential insult to potential injury, the Ft. Lauderdale airport is logistically delightful for cruise passengers. For starters it frequently has better airfares than the next-best alternative, Miami, since it's served by lower-fare carriers JetBlue, Southwest and Song. And Port Everglades is so convenient and close to the Ft. Lauderdale airport you can wave to the cruise ships' bridge crews on your landing pattern.

So, we hope that others will have more constructive solutions than Mayor Naugle, such as, say, adding runway capacity.

Sun-Sentinel (South Florida): Cruise, convention debate surfaces
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