If there’s any question Southwest Florida is steadily making its comeback from Hurricane Ian, look no further than Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) .
The Lee County Port Authority announced on Wednesday (Jan. 24) that the Fort Myers airport had the best December in its 41-year history for number of travelers coming to and departing from RSW. The passenger count for December was 1,094,783 passengers. This was an increases of 27% compared to December of 2022, only three months after Ian slammed the region. Total passengers in December 2022 was 862,368.
RSW finished 2023 with 10,069,839 passengers, which was a 2.6 percent decrease compared to 2022. Again, the aftermath of Hurricane Ian being the No. 1 factor.
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RSW has crossed the 1,000,000 passenger mark in December only twice before in its history − in 2021 (1,089,569) and 2019 (1,077,818).
For some perspective, in 1983 when RSW opened, there were 115,955 counted in December.