FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Travelers who leave their cars at Southwest Florida International Airport could soon pay more to park.<\/p>\n
The Lee County Port Authority Board is expected to consider proposed parking rate increases Thursday as part of its preliminary budget process for the 2026-27 fiscal year.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, the maximum daily rate for short-term parking would increase from $24 to $28.<\/p>\n
Long-term parking would increase from a maximum of $11 to $14 per day.<\/p>\n
That means someone parking long-term for three days could pay $42 instead of $33, an increase of $9. A three-day stay in short-term parking could increase from $72 to $84.<\/p>\n
The proposed rate schedule would run from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027.<\/p>\n
RSW currently offers both a short-term parking garage and a long-term surface lot.<\/p>\n
The short-term garage, located across from the terminal, currently allows drivers to park for the first 20 minutes for free and has a maximum charge of $24 per day.<\/p>\n
Long-term parking currently costs $2 per hour, with a daily maximum of $11 and a weekly rate of $60.<\/p>\n
Under the proposed rates, the first 20 minutes of short-term parking would remain free. The hourly rate would be $4, with a maximum charge of $28 per 24-hour period.<\/p>\n
Long-term parking would remain $2 per hour, but the daily maximum would increase to $14.<\/p>\n
The proposed 2026-27 rate sheet does not list a weekly long-term parking rate. RSW currently advertises a $60 weekly rate, but the documents provided ahead of Thursday\u2019s meeting do not specify whether that rate would remain the same or change.<\/p>\n
WINK News spoke with travelers at RSW Wednesday about the possibility of paying more to leave their cars at the airport.<\/p>\n
Heather Yant, who lives in Ave Maria, said she travels through RSW about once or twice a month for work.<\/p>\n
Yant previously lived in the Fort Lauderdale area and said parking at RSW has been less expensive than what she was used to paying there.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn’t thrill us, of course, when any cost goes up, but it’s still less than in other, I think, major markets,\u201d Yant said.<\/p>\n
Yant said a higher price could make her choose long-term parking more often instead of using the garage, even though that would mean giving herself additional time to take the shuttle to the terminal.<\/p>\n
Cynthia Escobar is another frequent RSW traveler. She said she flies through the airport every week or every other week.<\/p>\n
Escobar said the proposed increase would not stop her from parking at RSW because she values the convenience of having her car waiting when she returns.<\/p>\n
She also said her experiences traveling through other airports have made her question why parking prices can vary so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that all airport parking should be somewhat standardized,\u201d Escobar said.<\/p>\n
Escobar told WINK News a rideshare from her home in southern Collier County can cost between $50 and $60, making parking at the airport more convenient for her even if rates increase.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s meeting is not the final vote on the proposed parking increases.<\/p>\n
Board members are being asked to give tentative approval to several items tied to the upcoming fiscal year budget, including the increase in public parking rates.<\/p>\n
If the proposal moves forward Thursday, the rates would still have to go through public hearings and receive final board approval later in September.<\/p>\n
The agenda materials do not specify why the parking increases are being proposed or how much additional revenue they are expected to generate.<\/p>\n
WINK News will follow Thursday\u2019s Port Authority meeting and provide updates as the proposal moves through the approval process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Travelers who leave their cars at Southwest Florida International Airport could soon pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,28,155552,12931,10137,1521],"class_list":["post-388663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida","tag-lee-county-port-authority-board","tag-parking","tag-rsw","tag-southwest-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}