Fort Myers airport has busiest month in its history

More than 1.5 million passengers traveled through Southwest Florida International Airport in March, achieving a record in the Fort Myers airport’s more than 40-year history. RSW reports its March passenger count of 1,521,149 was up 3.9% compared with March 2025. Passenger traffic is up 1.9% year to date, officials say.

“March 2026 was the busiest March and best single month in the 43-year history of Southwest Florida International Airport,” Lee County Port Authority Executive Director and CEO Steven Hennigan says in a statement.

“We appreciate all our employees, airlines and airport business partners who support the traveling public every day and thank our passengers for their patience during what was an incredibly busy month,” Hennigan says. “I also want to recognize the many TSA officers who came to work every day, despite personal hardships, to make sure travelers had a safe and secure experience at RSW.”

Due to the partial government shutdown, TSA agents were unpaid from mid-February until the end of March.

One Wisconsin traveler was so impressed with the attitude of the workers at the Fort Myers airport that she shared her experience on the RSW Facebook page in mid-March, writing: “We just flew out of RSW yesterday and I was shocked at how positive and kind each person we encountered while going through TSA security was. With all the negative hype you hear on social media due to the shutdown, the staff at RSW is keeping it positive."

Overall, RSW reported having 12,577 aircraft operations in March, an increase of 4.7% versus March 2025. Page Field had 17,350 operations, a 30% year-over-year increase.

The March traffic leader at RSW was Delta with 289,910 passengers, followed by Southwest, with 282,966 passengers; United, with 225,833 passengers; American, with 214,941 passengers; and JetBlue, with 121,213 passengers, according to a statement.

In 2025, RSW served more than 11.1 million passengers. It is among the top 50 U.S. airports for passenger traffic and does not use any ad valorem (property) taxes for airport operations or construction.