Southwest Florida International Airport reports traffic decrease in July compared to last year

Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) is reporting a 17.6% decrease in travelers compared to last July.

While the airport reported a decrease, it said it was still the second-best July in the 39-year history of the airport, according to a news release from the Lee County Port Authority.

RSW said it saw 671,225 passengers travel through RSW in July.

The traffic leader in July was Delta with 177,355 total passengers. Rounding out the top five airlines were Southwest (132,296), American (122,450), JetBlue (72,852) and United (68,847), according to the press release.

Southwest Florida International Airport had 5,213 aircraft operations, a decrease of 26 percent compared to July 2021, but Page Field saw a 58% increase in operations compared to July of last year, which made it the best single month at Fort Myers in nearly 40 years, according to the press release.

Southwest Florida International Airport served more than 10.3 million passengers in 2021.

“I think the decrease that we’re seeing to last year, if what I understand is correct, has really been not so much attributed to people not wanting to come to the area but contributed more towards not being able to have enough planes,” said Brian Kramer, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa.

John Lai, the president and CEO of the Sanibel Captiva Chamber of Commerce, said while air travel may be down that doesn’t mean people aren’t coming to Southwest Florida.

“While we are seeing a decrease in air travel, we are still seeing a very robust drive traffic visitor coming over to our destination. So it is helping with the hotel occupancies. It is helping with that the fact that meetings and weddings and events are happening again, is a huge buoy to our economy,” Lai said.