Fort Myers airport news: August passenger numbers for RSW slightly off year-over-year
October is upon us and that means cooler temperatures and less rainy days are ahead for those of us leaving in Southwest Florida.
And for those people fleeing the cold weather up north.
The arrival of October also means more people traveling to and from Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), a trend that will continue through next April.
The summer months are traditionally the "slow time" for the Fort Myers airport. The RSW passenger numbers for August were released on Monday (Sept. 25) by the Lee County Port Authority showing a total of 601,542 passengers arrived and departed, or a 3% year-over-year decrease.
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Year-to-date, passenger traffic is down 13 percent with the decrease being mostly attributed to the ongoing recovery in the region from Hurricane Ian, which slammed Southwest Florida on Sept. 28, 2022. Passenger traffic has been down as much as 18% after April's report.
Southwest Florida International served a record-breaking 10.3 million passengers in 2022 despite the airport closing down to commercial flights from from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 because of Ian. And from Oct. 5 to Oct. 10, commercial flights operated only during daylight hours (because of airline and federal agency staffing).
Carrier scoreboard for August
The traffic leader in April was Delta with 207,290 passengers.
Rounding out the top five airlines were:
Southwest Florida International Airport had 8,380 aircraft operations, a decrease of 16 percent compared to April 2022. Page Field saw 17,841 operations, which was a 14 percent increase compared to April 2022, and a new monthly record.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: RSW in Fort Myers: Augusta passenger numbers off year over year
