The omicron variant isn’t keeping travelers from flying to Southwest Florida

The omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the globe. 45 states, including Florida, have confirmed cases.

The virus isn’t keeping people from coming to Southwest Florida. There are three main reasons people are still flying south; they live or visit here regularly, they want to come to enjoy the weather and water, or they want to escape the COVID-19 restrictions many places have in place.

All of them have decided getting on a plane is worth the risk. Florida is a state where masks are the exception, not the rule except for a handful of places like the airport.

Many passengers arriving can’t wait to take ’em off.

“I’m ready to be done with this,” said Brett Anderson, who traveled from West Virginia.

Ian Szakacs, who flew to RSW from Detriot said, “I personally feel if you’re vaccinated like you should be able to fly without masks.”

If you want to fly you have no choice but to mask up because the federal government decides the rules on planes.

The states have no say.

“It’s better without it but it is what it is. If you want to travel you gotta follow the rules,” said Shaun Williams from Cincinnati.

Those rules will likely not change anytime soon. ABC news anchor Jonathan Karl and Doctor Anthony Fauci if we would ever reach a point where masks won’t be needed on airplanes.

Fauci said, “I don’t think so. Even though you have a good filtration system, I still believe that masks are a prudent thing to do, and we should be doing it.”

Fauci points to COVID-19 cases rising nationwide, including in Florida.

In the last seven days, the CDC says Florida’s positivity rate jumped from 2.6% to 5.4% as both the delta and omicron variants spread.

Travelers read the statistics but most won’t let the risk stop them from traveling for the holidays.

“It’s 27 degrees up there it’s warm down here we’ll risk it,” said Williams.

Szackacs said, “I’m fine with the restrictions for a while. We made these plans probably four or five months ago not realizing it was going to get so much worse now.”

A recent survey backs up what that woman Szackacs said, while a large majority of people worry about COVID-19 and its variants, they don’t worry enough to cancel their trips.
85-87% still plan to travel between now and the new year.