Airport administrator offers glimpse of aviation’s future in Lee County
Lee County Port Authority Executive Director Ben Siegel shared his crystal-ball vision of Southwest Florida International Airport for 2022 into 2040 and beyond at the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce’s luncheon meeting on Jan. 12 at the Sundial Beach Resort & Spa on Sanibel, which was co-hosted by the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.
The near future will bring the completion of a three-year Terminal Expansion Project at RSW, Siegel explained. Longer term, the Skyplex at RSW will develop to build out the LCPA’s acreage along Daniels Road, while a second runway is in the works for 2040 or thereafter.
Plans for the terminal project now underway include consolidating the three Transportation Security Administration checkpoints into one 16-lane central checkpoint and providing additional seating, concession spaces and a business lounge. In total, the project will remodel more than 164,000 square feet of space and add 117,000 square feet of new walkways and concession space to the terminal.
“You’re going to have a completely different experience. You won’t be confined to one concourse for dining and other options,” Siegel said, adding that the redesign includes a lounge area on an upper level overlooking the concessions area.
The expansion will meet needs sparked by the airport’s growing numbers. The year 2021 brought seven consecutive record-breaking months in passenger statistics before the December numbers have been tallied.
“We do expect to break 2019 numbers for the year,” Siegel said, pointing out that 2019 held the previous record for through-passengers.
The airport, ranked number one in the nation for passenger recovery post-lockdown, already serves more destinations than in 2019 with 14 carriers traveling to 58 nonstop destinations. RSW now ranks as the 30th busiest U.S. airport, up from the mid-40s pre-COVID. Although the airport runs today at only 52 percent of its runway capacity, the LCPA has just completed building a new traffic control tower to accommodate a future parallel runway.
“We are the third largest single runway airport in the world,” Siegel said.
The LCPA will turn over ownership of the new tower to the Federal Aviation Administration to open in early 2023, when the old tower will be demolished. It decided to build the tower using internal funding instead of asking for FAA money to ascertain it stands ready when the LCPA goes forward with the second runway. Originally that was slated for construction around 2025, but because airlines are using bigger aircraft these days, fewer planes are now actually using the runway.
As the third largest airport operation in the country in terms of land mass, after Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth, the LCPA has been developing 1,150 acres north of RSW. Located in a Foreign Trade Zone, Skyplex is a mix of aviation and non-aviation businesses, revenue which supports airport operations.
“We should feel lucky and utterly impressed with the forward thinking and high-ranking statistics we heard from Ben at the luncheon,” chamber President and Chief Executive Officer John Lai said. “The LCPA group has virtually guaranteed the future of tourism in Lee County and beyond, and I, for one, am entirely grateful.”
Board Chair Mark Blust led the meeting, welcoming everyone into the new year, during which the chamber celebrates its 60th anniversary. Attendees also heard current visitation statistics from Pamela Johnson, with the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau. Adventures in Paradise sponsored the meeting.
For more information on the project, visit skyplexrsw.com.