Southwest Florida’s RSW sees crowds surge after Thanksgiving weekend

Reporter: Paul Dolan Writer: Bryanna Sterzenbach
Published: Updated:
Thanksgiving

From our roads to our skies, millions of Americans are heading home from Thanksgiving celebrations.

TSA agents anticipate even bigger crowds on Sunday than the day before Thanksgiving.

WINK News reporter Paul Dolan went to RSW in the morning to find out whether those expectations were met.

Thanksgiving weekend is just about over, and that means for those visiting Southwest Florida and now heading home, their first stop is RSW.

Brooke and her family were returning home to Austin from a connecting flight in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But that is easier said than done.

“Trying to have a good attitude because there are two ways to go through the airport: as if everything’s working against you or that everything’s working for you,” said Brooke Stubbs. “Woke up at five in the morning and got a notification that our 8 a.m. flight was delayed ’til noon. We got here for our noon flight and got a notification that our flight was then delayed until 2 p.m. And then when we got to the front desk to talk about switching our seats, they thought, ‘Oh, I don’t think that this flight’s actually going to go off at all.'”

She and Drew, along with their two kids, were stuck in purgatory during the six-hour delay.

Luckily for their kids, Mom and Dad had a few delay tips.

They spotted some puppy dogs that we’ve been entertained by, and we’re gonna go check out Starbucks,” the parents told WINK. “Lots of diversions with kids, like she said, anything to pass the time, movies, games on the iPad.”

But others, like Teri from Cape Coral, didn’t have so much turbulence at the airport.

She was dropping her granddaughter off, who was returning to school, earlier Sunday morning. Fortunately, that was before the foot traffic at RSW crescendoed.

“I am pleasantly surprised. This morning, we really thought it was going to be very busy. I mean, just in the 10 minutes I’ve been here, I can see more and more people coming. But it’s been great,” Teri said.

Proving that catching a flight is all about timing.

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