RSW May traffic was down but overall higher

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Real Estate

 

Passenger traffic at RSW year-over year: May was down, but 2022 pace higher

Mark H. Bickel
Fort Myers News-Press
 

The one million passengers a month streak in 2022 has come to an end at Southwest Florida International Airport.

And that is hardly a surprise based on historical data and trends when it comes to people traveling to and from the Fort Myers airport.

The first four months of the year, when tourism is strong thanks to our great weather, are usually the strongest.

One million passengers came through RSW in January, February, March and April — the first time that has happened since 2019.

March has been busiest month of the year so far with 1,514,046 passengers, a single-month record for RSW.

Maybe a little surprising is the fact that year-over-year the May traffic was 11.8 lower compared to 2021.

Possibly contributing to the decrease are the ongoing challenges the airline industry has faced during the pandemic.

Numerous flights across the country have been cancelled and air travel in general has become a struggle.


 

Year-to-date, passenger traffic is up 24.6 percent compared to last year.

 

As far as carriers go, Delta led the way in May with 196,119 total passengers. Rounding out the top five airlines were Southwest (148,142), American (125,644), United (122,902) and JetBlue (103,645).

Southwest Florida International Airport had 7,409 aircraft operations, a decrease of 19.5 percent compared to May 2021. Page Field saw 15,527 operations, a 28 percent increase compared to May 2021.

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