Southwest Florida International Airport, 4682 Terminal Drive, Fort Myers, Florida, USA / Built: 1983 / Terminals: 1 with 3 concourses / Runways: 1 / Runway Length: 12,000 ft / Passengers: 10,225,180

Southwest Florida International Airport (IATA: RSW, ICAO: KRSW, FAA LID: RSW) is a major county-owned airport in the South Fort Myers region of unincorporated Lee County, Florida, United States. The airport serves the Southwest Florida region, including the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Naples-Marco Island, and Punta Gorda metropolitan areas, and is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection port of entry. It currently is the second-busiest single-runway airport in the United States, after San Diego International Airport. In 2019, the airport served 10,225,180 passengers, the most in its history.

The airport has one terminal with three concourses: Concourse B serves Air Canada, Eurowings, Frontier, Southwest, and Sun Country; Concourse C serves Delta, United, and WestJet; and Concourse D serves American, 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 connected airside. Concourses A and E designations have been reserved for the planned future expansion of the terminal.

The airport sits on 13,555 acres (5,486 ha, 21.2 sq.mi.) 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.

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.

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 Road 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 Road, providing easy access (Interstate 75 was opened to traffic through Fort Myers in 1979).

Construction of the airport began in 1980, and it opened on schedule on May 14, 1983, with a single 8400-ft runway. At the time of its opening, the airport was named Southwest Florida Regional Airport (the airport code RSW is short for "Regional South-West"). Delta Air Lines operated the first flight. The original terminal was located on the north side of the runway at the end of Chamberlin Parkway.

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. 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).

In 1988 the airport exceeded its annual capacity of 3 million passengers; by 2004, the airport was serving nearly 7 million passengers annually. The original terminal had 17 gates on two concourses. While three of the gates were added in a minor expansion of the B concourse in the late 1990s, the original terminal's design was not conducive to a major expansion.

With the 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, designed by Spillis Candela/DMJM Aviation, has three concourses and 28 gates and can eventually expand to five concourses with 65 gates.

Demolition of the former terminal north of the airfield was completed in spring 2006. However, the original terminal's parking lot and other related infrastructure still stand 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.

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. Terminal Access Road was then expanded to six lanes in late 2016.

Since beginning commercial airline service on May 14, 1983 through the end of 2019, over 205.5 million passengers (enplaned and deplaned) have transited through RSW. There has been over 2.67 million aircraft operations at the airport since its opening.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Florida_International_Air...

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Taken in: United States / Florida / Renaissance (show map)

Taken on: November 26, 2020

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Southwest Florida International Airport

4682 Terminal Drive

Florida

USA

Built: 1983

Terminals: 1

3 concourses

Runways: 1

Runway Length: 12

000 ft

Passengers: 10

225

180

airfield

passenger traffic

IATA

RSW

ICAO

KRSW

LID

county-owned airport

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Eurowings

Frontier

Southwest

Sun Country

Delta

United

WestJet

American

JetBlue

Spirit

. Customs and Immigration

Page Field

Daniels Road

proximity to Interstate 75

Midfield Terminal Complex

Spillis Candela/DMJM Aviation

Chamberlin Parkway

Treeline Avenue

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