Hurricane Irma slashes Southwest Florida airport passenger numbers

September, typically a humdrum month for Southwest Florida tourism and airline traffic, took an unsurprising nosedive this year.

Blame it on Hurricane Irma, which hammered the region on Sunday, Sept. 10, and played havoc with airline schedules before and after.

How big was the plunge?

In Fort Myers, Southwest Florida International served 327,466 passengers in September, a 16.4 percent decline, year-over-year.

Punta Gorda Airport served 51,836 passengers last month, a 19.29 percent drop over September 2016.

This was the first time in 46 months that Punta Gorda Airport saw a decrease in year-over-year monthly traffic, according to the Charlotte County Airport Authority.

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It’s not possible to quantify how many people abandoned their plans to fly to the region in September because of the storm. Some might have scored flights earlier or later.

However, Lee County Port Authority said 438 flights were canceled over the four-day span of Saturday, Sept. 9, through Tuesday, Sept. 12.

At Punta Gorda Airport, Executive Director James Parish didn’t have a similar statistic, but noted the airport’s sole commercial carrier, Allegiant Air, canceled an entire week of flights.

After the hurricane, airlines gradually resumed flights in Fort Myers. No flights operated on Sept. 10, but by Tuesday, roughly 40 percent did.

Some airlines might have ramped-up flights more quickly, if regular electrical power had been available sooner.

Southwest Florida International had limited power from generators for about 30 hours during and immediately following the storm’s landfall here.

Airline crews also had trouble securing local lodgings after the hurricane, said airport spokeswoman Victoria Moreland, when some hotels were closed and demand for rooms was so high.

No one doubts that Hurricane Irma messed-up September’s passenger traffic stats. However, both airports are still in the plus column year-to-date.

RSW passenger traffic is up 2.1 percent, year-to-date.

Punta Gorda reported a 13.9 percent increase.

To be sure, Punta Gorda’s passenger traffic pales in comparison to that of Southwest Florida International. The smaller airport served more than 1.1 million passengers in 2016; RSW served 8.6 million that year.

But Punta Gorda has proven to be a big hit with no-frills, low-fare Allegiant, which continues to add flights to this small airport some 25 miles north of downtown Fort Myers.

Busiest airlines

Delta was the traffic leader at Southwest Florida International in September, with 75,168 passengers.

Rounding out the top five were:

Southwest, 60,369;

 JetBlue, 55,070;

 American, 54,090; and

United, 27,580

SOURCE: Lee County Port Authority