April 09--When Airberlin Flight 7008 touched down at Southwest Florida International Airport during a wind-whipped and rainy Tuesday afternoon, the plane marked a milestone in the region's aviation history.
Twenty years prior on April 7, 1994, the first nonstop flight from Germany arrived at RSW. Since then, Airberlin is still the only airline to offer international transcontinental flights to RSW, carrying hundreds of tourists every year between Fort Myers and Dusseldorf.
This time, a water cannon salute greeted the Airberlin plane as it meandered down wet runways on its way to the arrival gate, a show of ceremonial grandeur befitting a visiting foreign dignitary. It was the least airport officials could do for an economic partner they said has made Southwest Florida a competitive European travel destination for the last two decades.
The nonstop service between Fort Myers and Dusseldorf has allowed RSW to join an elite number of airports in the United States that offer such flights, including the Miami and Orlando international airports.
Airberlin has carried more than 1.2 million people on 8,000 flights, said Bob Ball, executive director of RSW.
"It's been a tremendous benefit to have direct service to a major hub such as Dusseldorf with connections throughout Europe for businesses and for leisure, for real estate and shopping," Ball said.
Titus Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing for Airberlin, predicted the airline plans to continue expanding in Southwest Florida.
"The airport is growing, the region is becoming more robust economically, so we have a great future here," Johnson said. "Airberlin was the first airline to recognize the potential here."
Airberlin now flies in and out of RSW four days a week during the winter months and three days a week in the summer. But it took some persuading to get the service started in Fort Myers at all.
In the early 1990s, the slayings of foreign tourists in Florida cast a shadow on the state's travel industry. At least four of the tourists killed were German, including 54-year-old Rudi Rohloff, who was fatally shot Dec. 8, 1992, while walking down a quiet street in Fort Myers with his fiancee.
Around that same time, Southwest Florida airport officials traveled to Germany on a "marketing tour" to attract a carrier and it was "rough," Ball said.
"Nobody wanted to talk to us," he said. "Germans were wanting to leave Florida. German airlines were canceling flights in Florida."
But during their very last meeting, RSW officials met with LTU International, which merged with Airberlin in 2009, and their pitch finally worked.
"We convinced the managing director of LTU that Florida is a safe place and the German visitation and German travel would come back," Ball said. "So (we) asked him to take a chance to put a flight into Fort Myers."
The effort paid off, Ball said, because Airberlin tourists fly into RSW and then boost economies in Lee, Collier and surrounding counties.
Ecotourism, shopping and weather are big attractors for German tourists visiting Southwest Florida, according to the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau.
The majority of international visitors staying in paid accommodations in Lee came from Germany, making it the county's leading international market, followed by the United Kingdom and Canada, data shows.
About 209,199 German tourists visited Lee last year, according to fall 2013 estimates.
Last year in Collier County, European travelers spent about $216.8 million, and about $93.6 million of that total came from Central European tourists, including those from Germany, according to the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau.
As the Uessners waited to board the Airberlin flight back to Germany on Tuesday, they gladly shared details of the three months they spent in Cape Coral visiting friends.
Christel Uessner's skin was bronzed from numerous beach trips -- Sanibel was her favorite -- a whirlwind tour of Miami and journeys around Naples.
The Uessners expect to fly back as soon as possible, she said.
"We liked the sun. We like the white sand," Christel Uessner said. "It is wonderful."
___
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2014 - Naples Daily News, Fla.
