RSW sees 21% decrease in June year-over-year traffic, up year-to-date

During June, 663,141 passengers traveled through Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers.

This was a decrease of 21 percent compared to June 2021. Year-to-date, passenger traffic is up 17.6 percent compared to last year.

The traffic leader in June was Delta with 176,915 total passengers. Rounding out the top five airlines were Southwest (127,095), American (122,983), JetBlue (71,428) and United (67,716).

Southwest Florida International Airport had 5,418 aircraft operations, a decrease of 26.5 percent compared to June 2021. Page Field saw 14,284 operations, a 28 percent increase compared to June 2021.

Recent traveler, Kim McCallum, visiting the area from St. Louis, was relieved her trip to Southwest Florida has been problem free. “We have not had any problems we got down here very easily,” McCallum said.

But she didn’t take any chances with the way things have been. “I was worried I would, you know, send my golf clubs down here, and then they would be lost,” McCallum said. “So I did not check this time. We made sure we booked the one direct flight from St. Louis. We tried to minimize our risk.”

RSW has seen a decrease in passengers for the second month in a row compared to 2021. Travel agents say it may be because staff shortages mean fewer flights and inflation means more expensive flights.

“The airlines across the board have cut schedules, not on your daily cancellations due to weather and this, that and the other,” said Anne Linburg a travel agent. “But I mean, permanently across the board until they can get their staffing back up.”

“When I’m looking at the flights compared to last year, definitely flight rates are up,” said Jeremie Thomas a travel agent for 1Stop Travels Inc. “And you know, it goes and point with, you know, the economy and gas prices.”

Southwest Florida International Airport served more than 10.3 million passengers in 2021 and is one of the top 50 U.S. airports for passenger traffic.

A spokesperson for RSW said they expected this change in passenger traffic with so many airlines cutting flights. But, the good news is that this past June was still the airport’s second best June in history.