Miami-Dade may soon look into building another airport

With cargo and passenger movements rising at Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami-Dade’s top economic engine, there’s concern that demands at the hub will one day outpace its means.

The county may soon examine that possibility — and the feasibility of building another airport capable of accommodating similar cargo, commercial passenger and general aviation operations.

Miami-Dade Commissioners voted this week to advance a resolution by Kevin Marino Cabrera that would direct Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s administration to look into building another airport on county land.

If approved by a full Commission vote, the item would require a report within 90 days identifying potential funding for the project, any impediments the undertaking may face and a site for the airport, including, but not limited to, any of the county’s four general aviation and training airports.

The report would also have to detail the potential economic impacts, including job creation, that the new airport would have on the county.

Cabrera said he wants to know what MIA’s ultimate capacity is and how many years the county has before reaching and exceeding it. Between 2013 and 2023, the airport went from moving 40.5 million passengers and 2.1 million tons of cargo to handling 50.6 million passengers and 2.75 million tons of cargo. This year, he said, those figures rose 10% over last year.

“Clearly, we’re growing year-over-year significantly,” he said. “So, we want to make sure we’re being forward-thinking and that we’re prepared for the future.”

Raquel Regalado, who won re-election on Nov. 5 with 56.6% of the vote, agreed that it’s a good idea to consider MIA’s limitations before the airport reaches them. She said she’ll soon bring legislation to create a “cargo master plan” that will include predictions of future needs and outline goals for the county.

Regalado advised Cabrera to amend his item, which the Airport and Economic Development Committee advanced by a 6-0 vote Thursday, to require that Miami-Dade staff seek feedback from the county’s aviation partners. That wasn’t done, she said, when the county worked to expand MIA in 2008 through a now-defunct $512 million project called Airport City that was to span 33.5 acres in and around the hub.

“For your personal well-being,” she told Cabrera, “just have them talk to the stakeholders so no one’s blowing up your phone when they get a whiff of a draft of a memo.”