FYI Miami: December 12, 2024

Below are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

MIA BREAKING RECORDS: Miami International Airport is likely to reach 56 million passengers this calendar year, a 7% increase on last year’s total, Ralph Cutié, county aviation director, told Miami Today. That gain will include an international passenger component that will rank the airport second in the nation after JFK in New York. Meanwhile, he said, the airport will register a 6% freight gain and will rank first in the nation in handling of international air freight. The airport’s new on-site 550-room Westin hotel, he said, is about to begin its 2½-year construction journey while the existing Miami International Airport Hotel run by Driftwood has an occupancy of almost 90%. 

SEEKING NEW AIRPORT: With a single unexplained negative vote from Eileen Higgins, Miami-Dade County commissioners last week asked Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to report in 90 days how to go about creating a needed airport to handle cargo, passengers and general aviation to meet rapidly growing demand at Miami International Airport. Passenger traffic this year is expected to rise 7% and cargo to increase 6%. The resolution by Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera asks the mayor to pinpoint where an airport could rise, “including … general aviation airports in the county’s system,” funding sources for a major airport, and potential impediments to creating the airport.

SOFTWARE TAKEOFF DELAYED: Miami International Airport’s plan to eliminate the need for a physical boarding pass has been delayed. As previously reported by Miami Today, American, which flies from the D concourse gates, was to be converted by the end of this year to facial recognition software. However, the installation schedule for the use of biometric boarding in concourse D has shifted to next year, the Aviation Department says. The airport did not provide a reason for the delay or a start date for the new system.

APOLLO TAKES OFF: A data center in Northwest Miami-Dade County will get more than $3.6 million in incentives from the county after it is built at an estimated cost of $150 million and employs 27 workers. County commissioners last week without discussion approved the incentives for the project, which is code named Apollo by the Beacon Council, the county’s economic development organization. The identity of the company, whose workers are to be paid an average of $80,000 per year, was not made public. The county said the company will provide 15 megawatts of IT capacity, advancing networking, computing and storage capacity in the data center.