Southwest Florida Regional Airport (RSW) is streamlining its terminal to provide a better overall guest experience for travelers.
The $331-million project focuses on improving the airport’s efficiency by consolidating security checkpoints, adding concession space and providing passengers more amenities. More than 164,000 square feet of space will be remodeled and 117,000 square feet of new walkways and concession space will be added to the airport terminal.
Ben Siegel, executive director of the Lee County Port Authority, said the project is aimed at improved operational efficiency and providing a better guest experience, not building capacity. The current design comes from a pre-9/11 era, which has three different Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints, which keeps travelers confined to their concourse, limiting dining and shopping options.
“It wasn’t efficient for the Transportation Security Administration, it wasn’t efficient for our concession program,” Siegel said. “It has been problematic for a number of reasons for the past 15 years.”
The new updated terminal will consolidate the checkpoints into one centralized location with a 16-lane configuration. All RSW travelers will be able to go to any of the concourses that they so desire for shopping, eating and other options.
“TSA has to independently manage three checkpoints. Its not effective it takes a certain number of people if you’re busy or not,” Siegel said. "Being able to go up to 16 checkpoints at one central location will provide more throughput than we currently have. It will provide additional capacity in terms of throughput and it also give us more queuing space in line for the security checkpoints within the main checkpoint.”
The consultant working on design and planning of the RSW Terminal Expansion Project is Atkins North America Inc. The construction manager/general contractor for the project is Manhattan Construction (Florida). The project is being funded with grants from the Florida Department of Transportation, Passenger Facility Charges (PFCs), airport revenue bonds and Lee County Port Authority construction funds.
What is Needed
Siegel said the airport conducted surveys in the community to figure out what they needed to add in terms of shopping and dining. They discovered RSW wasn’t lacking in types of services offered, but in terms of quantity as travelers were confined to individual concourses.
“What we’ve done is we’re adding 120,000 square feet of space and all of it is being added to provide all new concepts that this airport hasn’t seen before,” he said. All the existing concessions on the concourses will have new concepts after the expansion get refurbished.
“The entire shopping and dining experience will be completely redefined when all is said and done at RSW.”
Siegel said the airport’s plan is to include as much touchless technology as possible. They’re requesting and encouraging all RSW food and beverage providers to go along with that touchless experience as they’re shopping and dining. They were planning to move this direction prior to the pandemic, but they’re now accelerating these efforts.
RSW also looking at the various types of food delivery options for the airport as well.
“This airport is quite a bit smaller than larger hubs so those types of amenities may not be as desirable as they would be in other markets,” he said. Plus, being an O&D market there’s not a tremendous amount of dwell time that occurs in terms of layovers.”
Construction will Last Three Years
The project is being carefully phased through different times of day and year so to not interrupt with the busiest traffic times at the airport.
"It has got a very delicate schedule,” Siegel said. “It’s going to require a tremendous amount of communication for all our guests to make sure that when they get here they know where to go when there are changes.
“There’s going to be a lot of construction walls, there’s going to be a lot of signage and there’s going to be a lot of people available to help our guests find their way during this period of time.”
RSW leaders are looking towards a post-pandemic future when the updates are completed. While it’s impossible to predict the events of the world that can impact airport operations, Siegel said leaders believe the improvements will put them on the right path to success.
“Our post security experience has been one that has been lacking since day one and we really believe this project and changing the dynamics of this airport from a pre-security experience to a post-security experience is really where things need to be for the forseeable future,” he said.
