In between flights taking off and landing at Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) on Thursday (July 24), something monumental happened at the Fort Myers airport that deserves your attention.
A new Starbucks opened.
The airport recognized the occasion on its Facebook page:
RSW is happy to announce the opening of a new Starbucks at the end of Concourse B. This is one of the new concessions that is part of the Terminal Expansion Project at Southwest Florida International Airport.
The terminal expansion project is well underway and includes the edition of a new concourse (E) are part of work being done to align the airport with the needs of a growing Southwest Florida.
The opening of the Starbucks represents progress and the beginning of what will be more grand openings for new shops and restaurants in the coming months and next year.
Starbucks is one of the businesses on the “expected” top open list in 2025 along with:
Looking further down the road to 2026, the plan calls for the following businesses to open:
What to know: RSW’s historic expansion
The beginnings of a skeleton of what will become Concourse E has already had a dramatic impact on the look of the airport. Towering cranes are the dominant machinery on the construction site.
The is second phase of the expansion, which started in October 2024 and is the centerpiece of this expansion project.
Work is also taking place inside the terminal at all three levels, including a new ticketing lobby and bag claim area, as well as a new baggage handling system, for the new concourse.
This time construction requires temporary changes, inside and outside of the airport.
Among the temporary changes: Diverting commercial transportation, from hotel shuttles to on-demand taxis to the ground floor of the short-term parking garage, directly across from the terminal. The road those vehicles have typically used to pick up and drop off passengers will be closed for construction.
Eventually, the commercial vehicles will use the inner lanes, with a widened curb, on the lower level of the terminal, and the outer lanes will be reserved for family and friends providing transportation to their loved ones.
By 2027, the refresh of the existing concourse concessions should be complete.
The new Concourse E at RSW will be located west of Concourse D.
It is estimated the entire terminal expansion project will be completed by March 2029.
Airport expansion: Key numbers for new Concourse E
10-15,000 − The additional gates will allow 10,000 to 15,000 more passengers to come into the airport and into the region every day.
$1 billion − the projected cost of the second phase of the RSW expansion
14 − the number of gates the second phase of the expansion will add to RSW with enough room to support a total of 33 gates in the future.
37,000 −square feet of retail space
9 − the number of new TSA lanes the new concourse will feature
50 − percentage of gate capacity to accommodate the projected demand at RSW by the Federal Aviation Administration and the port authority’s board through 2035.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: RSW announces opening of new concession as part of historic terminal expansion project
Reporting by Mark H. Bickel, Fort Myers News-Press / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
