What impact a nationwide pilot strike could have on SWFL?

LEE COUNTY, Fla. — It was a quiet day in the RSW airport on a Memorial Day Sunday.

“I was very lucky we had no delays,” said Kristen Banholzer a seasonal resident of Cape Coral.

As travelers tell Fox 4 traveling during memorial day weekend wasn’t much of a headache as expected.

“It was actually great; I had a good flight,” said Laura Stelma a visitor traveling with her fiance from San Francisco.

Memorial Day Weekend is considered the unofficial kick-off of summer travels. As the United States gears up for what could be a record-breaking year for summer travel…pressure is being applied from pilot unions.

”US airlines are cued up to potentially have a strike this summer.,” said Dr. Jase Ramsey, and International Business professor at Florida Gulf Coast University. “In my perspective, it comes down to money. One of the other airlines recently gave a 21 percent pay raise.”

Fox News located in Atlanta previously reported that Delta Airlines approved a new contract for pilots that raise the pay by more than 30 percent for over four years.

In the wake of this, American, Southwest, United, and FedEx Express all threaten to strike if negotiations weren’t met.

“It’s already tough finding flights and I think that Will increase delays,” Banholzer said.

“I don’t think they will strike, I think that the opportunity cost for the companies is too high to let this go to a strike situation,” Dr. Ramsey said.

If the situation takes a turn for the worst and results in a strike, Dr. Ramsey said since Southwest Florida depends on tourism and hospitality–our area could possibly feel the spill out from a strike more than other parts of the nation.

“Let’s say if someone wants to come down from Atlanta if there is a chance that flight gets canceled, chances they [travelers] will just say ‘You know what I’m going to get just get in the car and drive to Destin, instead of coming all the way down, because we [SWFL] are so far to get to for the rest of the country,” Dr. Ramesy said. “That’s where we are really going to feel it, is all of the domestic travel that would normally come to us would just be canceled.”

May 19th, 2023 Governor Ron DeSantis announced that from January 2023- March 2023 Florida had a record 37.9 million visitors, the largest volume of visitors ever recorded in a single quarter.