Ouch. That one stings a little. A brand-new index study reveals Punta Gorda Airport is the worst Florida-based airport.
The experts at FloridaRentals.com have revealed the best and worst airports across Florida. They indexed all 19 Florida-based airports, ranking each destination against 14 factors to receive a score out of 100. Here’s how they got the score.
Rankings are based on several factors such as: number of scheduled outbound direct flight destinations, average minutes delay per flight, average minutes delay due to weather, average minutes delay due to security, average minutes delay due to aircraft arriving late, average cost of hotels within 5 miles (for 1 night), and percentage of all operations cancelled.
I think this study may show more about Allegiant Air than Punta Gorda. Allegiant makes up the bulk of commercial flights in PG. Skytrax, an online airline review site gives Allegiant a score of 3 out of 10. But, Allegiant is known as an ultra-low cost carrier, so the old adage of “you get what you pay for” comes to mind.
The Punta Gorda Airport has been making some definite improvements. There’s now a 40-seat bar with runway views between Gates 2 and 3. There’s also a food and beverage counter near gate 1. They also have food trucks in the short term parking lot. Sure, there’s always the chance your flight gets delayed, but food trucks and drinking always makes the extra time go by easier. Our guy Pete is flying out of Punta Gorda next month, so we may revisit this.
Also, many of these airports are discussing or are in the middle of big improvements. So they know how busy they are, and they are expanding. A LOT of people are coming to Florida, so airport expansions are happening.
Southwest Florida International in Fort Myers fared much better in the study, ranking in the middle of the pack of Florida airports. So let’s see how they stack up.
8. Southwest Florida International
Our very own RSW scores 62.28. Also growing. The expanded terminal is expected to be operational in 2025.
(Sheila Book)
