Last week, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava launched a new passenger experience-enhancement campaign called “I AM MIA” at Miami International Airport.
It’s all part of a $1.7 billion maintenance improvement project that Levine Cava promises will reverse what she calls the county’s years-long “neglect” of Miami International. That disrepair includes oId, unclean public bathrooms, chronically out-of-order elevators, escalators and moving walkways. And perhaps most glaring – last September’s shutdown of the airport’s Skytrain, which has forced passengers to make epic treks through the D Terminal.
At the Feb. 29 launch of the new initiative, the Mayor announced that MIA will be hiring “lightning crew members” in blue vests whose job is to prioritize last-minute issues that could put a bump in the road for travelers and employees trying to navigate the airport.
On the South Florida Roundup, WLRN’s Tim Padgett spoke to the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County government reporter, Doug Hanks. They discussed whether or not MIA is really in shape to accommodate peak travel times like the deluge of traffic expected this month for spring break.
READ MORE: Miami International Airport marked the busiest airport in Florida in 2022
Last March, MIA was expecting record-breaking traffic. This year, Hanks said it won’t be all that different.
“I don't think that you're going to see the spring break traffic dramatically different from what [MIA is] used to. March is definitely a busy month. It's just a little bit below what it is in the [Thanksgiving and Christmas] holidays,” said Hanks. “And if you're on [the D terminal] and you're in one of these far-off gates, you probably are really going to notice it because you're not going to be able to take [the Skytrain].”
While younger spring breakers may not mind the trek through the airport to reach their terminals, other and especially older passengers may miss the convenience of having an open and operational Skytrain to get them from point A to point B. The Miami-Dade County reporter said that the main train is supposed to be up and running by the end of this month and the final station is set to open by the summer.
Mayor Levine Cava often uses the word “neglect” to describe what she says she found at Miami International Airport after she was elected in 2020. Her predecessor, Carlos Gimenez, who's now Florida’s District 26 congressman, hasn't taken too kindly to her accusation that he left the airport something of a broken-down mess for her to deal with.
Hanks said it’s important to note that before taking office as mayor, Levine Cava was a Miami-Dade County Commissioner for six years – and in that role she was and continues to be a part of the governing body that approves decisions made for the airport.
“I would say that there is a point to be made that one of the big contracts that the county has approved is to replace the elevators and the escalators rather than continue to repair them,” said Hanks.
“You hear that also with the transit escalators and elevators. In the prior administration, there was massive capital spending on other items as well. So [with] anything this big, I just think there's always a cycle – that they delay – of having to make the top decisions to really spend a bunch of money on replacement[s].”
Hanks said that an estimated 10% of the more than 600 elevators, escalators and motorized walkways at the airport are out of order. And while it looks like they are working on fixing this issue, he said it could take a couple of years.
“They've started [the “I AM MIA”] program, but, if you go to the airport website, there's a sign saying, we're having trouble getting parts…So it's definitely a years-long process. Theoretically, you should start to see a gradual improvement and that 10% figure should drop.”
You can listen to the full conversation above or wherever you get your podcasts by searching: The South Florida Roundup.
