Plan for vast new Miami airport on runway
A flight path is being cleared to build a major new airport in Miami-Dade County to handle mushrooming demand.
A commission committee last week recommended ordering Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to detail within 90 days how to go about creating a vital airport to handle cargo, commercial passengers and general aviation.
“It’s honestly just about forward thinking, thinking about exactly what is the capacity of [Miami International Airport], how many years do we have of this capacity and what are we planning for the future,” said Kevin Marino Cabrera, who sponsored the measure that the full commission is to hear Dec. 3.
Mr. Cabrera pointed to escalating problems with stairways, moving walkways and escalators at Miami International due to long inattention and asked to make sure “that we’re not doing the same in terms of cargo capacity, in terms of passenger capacity, and making sure that we’re ready for the future…. It tells the mayor’s office to explore all locations.”
The big question, he said, is “to figure out how many years we have left” by relying on only what the county has now.
“You know,” he said, “we’re 10% already up over last year’s numbers, so clearly we’re growing year over year significantly, so we want to make sure that we’re being forward thinking.”
“We find three straight years of record-making passenger growth,” aviation director Ralph Cutié told Miami Today in an Oct. 17 profile. “We had 50.7 million passengers back in 2022, 52.3 million in 2023, and we’re currently trending 9% growth over last year’s, which puts us at around 57 million by the end of this year.”
Commissioner Raquel Regalado applauded the planning but cautioned that all stakeholders at the airport and airport tenants need to be beamed in from the outset.
“About 12 years ago the county did consider this and that was one of the reasons that they wanted to move cargo out of MIA, which none of the cargo operators wanted,” she recollected. “The last time the county did this they came up with Airport City and with moving cargo out to Homestead and there were no buyers for that plan, so we kind of spun our wheels.”
Moreover, she said, “there was also about 14 years ago a conversation about having a regional airport and an international airport, and that was also something that was done without talking to the stakeholders, and the stakeholders got upset. So just for your personal wellbeing,” she cautioned Mr. Cabrera, “just have them talk to the stakeholders so no one’s blowing up your phone when they get a whiff of the draft memo.”
She said that she would soon bring the committee “the cargo master plan, which finally has some goals” and she encouraged a similar look at passenger uses. “I know [Miami] Executive [Airport] is bursting at the seams.”
Miami International Airport carried the nation’s most international passengers last year, 23.2 million, among its 96 airlines.
A pandemic boom pushed air freight capacity to its limit as sea shipping cratered. As a result, the airport this year made a deal for a vast new cargo-handling facility. Last year MIA handled 2.76 million tons of freight, 81% international.
Mr. Cabrera’s resolution asks the mayor to pinpoint where an airport could rise, “including … general aviation airports in the county’s airport system,” funding sources, the economic impact of a new airport, and “any potential impediments to the creation of such new airport.”
Eddie Leon
November 20, 2024 at 8:56 am
A large new international airport has to be near the central core of the county and not too far from the warehouses in Doral and Medley. The ideal location is at the end of the Dolphin between 137th and Krome and along 8th street. This is a huge vacant area although it’s environmentally sensitive. Something will need to be sacrificed either way for such a big and important project.
JLS
November 20, 2024 at 7:07 pm
Homestead AFB or Airport West are better sites because they are existing footprints and they will get through the environmental permitting easier.
TM
December 3, 2024 at 9:10 pm
That area does seem to be the best option. The area just north of there next to Route 27 would also be good.
SR
November 20, 2024 at 8:43 pm
Get creative. Build satellite terminals. Reclaim land ie: Fill in lakes/ tunnel highway. That will be cheaper in the long run. No one is going to drive 1-2 hours with traffic to an airport out west. Get real.
Mike
November 20, 2024 at 10:16 pm
At the rate large projects move in this county it’ll be 2075 before anything is complete. By then The Dolphin Expressway will have been converted to a runway.
Also, more than likely, Stephen P Clark and all his predecessors, connected friends, associates and influencers will get their cut of the pie too.
John Little
November 21, 2024 at 7:25 am
What do I know, but why not, at least for freight, undertake a major expansion of the county owned Opa-locka Airport?
Vanessa
November 21, 2024 at 12:14 pm
I don’t think this is a good idea because already the traffic is dangerous and a problem this will get worse with a new airport Miami can not handle it.
John Vilberg
November 21, 2024 at 9:16 pm
Homestead General aviation airport 28790 sw 217 ave. Plenty of fields to add infrastructure.
Robert Dumfries
November 22, 2024 at 2:22 pm
Why re-invent the wheel?
Look @ London, Paris, New York and other Big cities in the World start expanding secondary Airports to share the Load.
Take an Existing Airport and make it a dedicatedl one for Cargo Traffic.