Commercial Air Travel

Southwest Florida International Airport turned in a record-setting year for passenger traffic in 2024 with nearly three-quarters of a million more people filing through the Lee County air travel site.That increased passenger traffic was also reflected during December when 1,121,793 passengers traveled through RSW. This was an increase of 2.5 percent compared to December 2023. Year-to-date, passenger traffic was up 9.5 percent.

An area stretching from Texas to Tennessee braced Wednesday for the expected arrival of freezing rain and snow, as some other parts of the country that already received an arctic blast this week prepared to go another round with the plunging polar vortex.Weather forecasting service AccuWeather said the winter storm, forecast to bring snow and ice to more than 20 states, will cause major travel impacts and disruptions that will be felt across the country this week.Meanwhile, millions of Floridians are feeling the big chill this week after multiple cold fronts prompted freeze warnings, weather advisories, wind chills advisories and more across many parts of the Sunshine state.

A record 6.6 million Floridians are expected to crowd roads, airports and seaports for trips of 50 miles or more during the end-of-year holidays, according to the AAA auto club.

Getting a big holiday meal on the table can be stressful for the cook (see “The Bear,” Season two, Episode six.) But for guests, just getting to the table also can be difficult, and there’s no Butterball hotline for harried travelers.The number of people traveling 50 miles (80 kilometers) or more from home for Thanksgiving is expected to reach 55.4 million this week, a slight increase over last year, according to AAA projections.

The Lee County Port Authority announced Monday that Spirit Airlines will inaugurate nonstop service between Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, starting Dec. 15.

Breeze Airways, a new airline offering nonstop service between underserved routes across the U.S., will inaugurate nine new nonstop routes at Southwest Florida International Airport beginning in November.

A much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels — with too few humans to handle the load. The result, say aspiring travelers in the U.S. and around the world, is a maddening pre-travel purgatory defined, at best, by costly uncertainty.

The FAA said it is working to restore its NOTAM, Notice to Air Missions System, which provides a notice to pilots of something they need to know at an airport like weather or a runway closure.

New nonstop service between Southwest Florida International Airport and points in Michigan and North Carolina; RSW marks good July passenger numbers.

Bentonville, Arkansas and Austin, Texas will be easier to fly to soon.