The airport sits on 13,555 acres (5,486 ha, 21.2 sq.mi.)[4][5] of land just southeast of Fort Myers, making it the third-largest airport in the United States in terms of land size (after Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth). 6,000 acres of the land has been conserved as swamp lands and set aside for environmental mitigation.[6]
Prior to the opening of the airport, the region was served by Page Field in Fort Myers. By the 1970s, however, it had become clear that Page Field would be too small to handle increasing future demand for commercial flights into the region. Expanding Page Field was determined to be impractical because its airfield was constrained by U.S. 41 to the west and expanding the airfield to the east would require bridging the Ten Mile Canal and relocating a railroad track.[7]
A number of sites were considered for a new regional airport, including southern Charlotte County, Estero, and northeast Cape Coral near Burnt Store Marina. The government of Lee County ultimately selected a site near the end of Daniels Parkway which was a dirt road at the time. An advantage to this location was its proximity to Interstate 75, which was under construction and would have an interchange with Daniels Parkway, providing easy access (Interstate 75 was opened to traffic through Fort Myers in 1979).[8]
Construction of the airport began in 1980 and it opened on schedule on May 14, 1983. Upon opening, the airport was named Southwest Florida Regional Airport (the airport code RSW is short for "Regional South-West").[9] Originally, the airport included a single 8400-ft runway and a passenger terminal with 14 gates on two concourses. The original 1983 terminal was located on the north side of the runway at the end of Chamberlin Parkway.[10]
In 1986, American Trans Air (later known as ATA) began service to Fort Myers with flights to Indianapolis International Airport, which was the first scheduled service for that airline.[13]
The airport was renamed Southwest Florida International Airport in 1993, though it had hosted international flights since 1984 and U.S. Customs since 1987. The name change coincided with the completion of a 55,000 square foot Federal Inspection facility annexed to the original terminal's Concourse A.[14] The runway was also lengthened to 12,000 ft (3,658 m) at the same time to better accommodate international service (making it the fourth-longest runway in Florida).[15]
In 1988 the airport exceeded its annual capacity of 3 million passengers; by 2004, the airport was serving nearly 7 million passengers annually. In 1998, the original terminal was expanded with a new wing added to Concourse B which included three additional gates, bringing the total to 17.[10]
In April 1994, LTU International introduced the following route: Munich–Düsseldorf–Fort Myers–Miami–Düsseldorf–Munich. This was Fort Myers' first flight to Europe.[16] It came in response to rising tourism from Germany, which Lee County had spent the past several years cultivating. The county considered Germany a natural market to target, given the sizable German-American community that lived in Southwest Florida and maintained ties with its country of origin.[17]
With the original terminal operating at more than double its intended capacity, construction of a new Midfield Terminal Complex began in February 2002. The $438 million terminal opened on September 9, 2005. The terminal has three concourses and 28 gates. Demolition of the original terminal north of the airfield was completed in spring 2006. However, the original terminal's parking lot still stands at the end of Chamberlin Parkway. The former terminal's ramp, now known as North Ramp, is now primarily used as a base for Western Global Airlines, an Estero-based cargo airline.[18] In early 2015, Terminal Access Road, the airport's main entrance road, was extended past Treeline Avenue to connect directly to Interstate 75, allowing airport-related traffic to avoid local streets. The airport can now be accessed directly from the freeway at Exit 128.[19] Terminal Access Road was then expanded to six lanes in late 2016.[20]
Air Berlin, which had bought LTU, ceased service to Düsseldorf in October 2017.[21][22] The following May, Eurowings began routes to Düsseldorf, Munich, and Cologne using Airbus A330s.[23][24] The carrier subsequently dropped the flights to Munich and Cologne. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company suspended its link to Düsseldorf in March 2020.[25]Eurowings Discover launched a route to Frankfurt in March 2022.[26][27]
A new $16 million Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting facility (Lee County Station 92) opened in July 2013. A 9,100 ft (2,800 m) parallel runway is in planning. The project includes a relocated air traffic control tower, apron expansion, crossfield taxiway system, mitigation activities and FPL electrical line relocation. The new air traffic control tower was expected to be completed by 2019, but the construction was delayed until its completion in December 2021 and opened in January of 2022.[28] However, the parallel runway was delayed indefinitely. The apron expansion and crossfield taxiway system were completed in late 2013. The entire project is estimated to cost $454 million.
In early 2018, the Lee County Port Authority (LCPA) announced plans to ease seasonal security wait times by consolidating the three individual concourse checkpoints to a single consolidated checkpoint for all concourses. By relocating the checkpoints, there will be more restaurants, shops, and post-security spaces. According to the announcement by the LCPA, this expansion could cost between $150 million – $180 million.[29] Construction of this expansion is currently underway. The airport is also planning to build another concourse (Concourse E) on the west side of the terminal by 2027.[30]
Plans are in place for Skyplex – a commercial and industrial park in the location of the former passenger terminal. Chamberlin Parkway is currently being realigned which will remove the roadway loop that once served the former terminal.[31]
Other airport-related businesses, such as a hotel, are in the planning stages. A retail gasoline outlet near the airport's entrance opened in June 2014.[32][33]
In 2023 the airport had 87,685 aircraft operations, averaging 240 per day.[36]
Terminal
798,000 sq ft (74,100 m2)
Design capacity is 10 million passengers per year, with 28 gates on three concourses (current B,C and D). The terminal buildings can be expanded incrementally to 65 gates on five concourses (A-E).
Parking
11,250 spaces for hourly/daily parking located around the main terminal building and the entrance to the facility.
There is a three-story parking structure adjacent from the main terminal, used to house short-term parking.
30-space "cell-phone lot" for customers picking up arriving passengers
Awards
J.D. Power & Associates Airport Satisfaction Study – Ranked 2nd among North American airports with under 10 million annual passengers
The airport has one terminal with three concourses: Concourse B serves Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Avelo Airlines, Eurowings, Frontier, Southwest, and Sun Country; Concourse C serves Delta, United, and WestJet; and Concourse D serves American, Breeze, JetBlue, and Spirit. Customs and Immigration services for international flights are located on the lower level of Concourse B. The concourses are each completely separate and are not currently connected Airside, though the expansion underway will consolidate the three checkpoints into one. Concourse E is planned to be added on the west side of the terminal by 2027. The Concourse A designation has been reserved for an eventual fifth concourse to be added on the east side of the terminal.[30]
Since beginning commercial airline service on May 14, 1983 through the end of 2023, over 242 million passengers (enplaned and deplaned) have transited through RSW. There has been just over 3 million aircraft operations at the airport since its opening.
November 28, 2007 – A single-engine fixed wing aircraft crashed about 9:20 a.m. one mile (1.6 km) west of Runway 6. The crash killed the pilot. This is the first reported crash on airport property.[66]
April 12, 2009 – A Beech King Air 200 (N559DW) was carrying four passengers when the pilot went unconscious and later died. Doug White, a passenger, was guided into the airport by air traffic controller Brian Norton, assisted by controller Dan Favio. It was later reported that White was a single engine private pilot with about 130 hours of experience in single engine aircraft. All passengers aboard survived and the plane was not damaged.[67]
October 18, 2022 - A United Airlines Boeing 737-800 arriving from Newark, NJ safely landed but blew out two tires, stranding it on the airport's lone runway and forcing other incoming flights to be diverted while outbound flights were delayed. The runway was closed for nearly nine hours as specialized equipment to fix the plane had to be driven over from Orlando.[68]
^"Interstate 75". AA Roads. Archived from the original on February 25, 2017. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
^"Airport Codes-RSW". Airport Codes. Archived from the original on October 13, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
^ ab"2004 Master Plan"(PDF). Southwest Florida International Airport. Archived(PDF) from the original on November 12, 2021. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
Atlanta, Georgia
Chicago–O'Hare, Illinois
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
Detroit, Michigan
Newark, New Jersey
Charlotte, North Carolina
Boston, Massachusetts
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
Baltimore, Maryland
7.1%
2.6%
Media related to Southwest Florida International Airport at Wikimedia Commons
