Miami International Airport (MIA/KMIA)

Miami International Airport’s capital improvement programme amounts to a $5.4 billion investment. This includes:

• 252 completed projects ($1.5 billion).
• 108 projects in the planning and programming stages ($1.1 billion).
• 125 projects in the design/bid and award process ($3.1 billion).
• 128 projects in construction ($281 million).

PROJECT MAKE-UP

Future plans include:

• The proposed construction of a new air carrier runway to provide sufficient capacity beyond 2007 or 2008.
• As an addition to the new runway, a new midfield hold pad designed to accommodate four 747-400 aircraft. This will reduce delays by providing flexibility in the movement of aircraft beyond the terminal area and runways.
• Various upgrades to the airfield including navigation aids, taxiways, aprons, runway turnoffs and connectors are proposed with the objective to maximize and balance the capacity of the airfield system within the existing site boundaries.
• Changes to the terminal area include a new 47-gate linear concourse A-D terminal (north terminal development), achieved by extending concourse D by 1,100ft west and removing existing concourses B and C. This expanded terminal is expected to provide a 3,600 passenger per hour FIS, an extensive baggage handling system and a people-mover system. The new facility is planned for completion by 2004–05. Expansion beyond the north terminal development focuses on improvements to areas between D and H terminals and the expansion of the terminal area east of H to include development of the south terminal program, including concourse J.
• An extensive expansion of the cargo facility area on the west side and north side is planned to accommodate the forecast doubling of air cargo volume over the next 20 years.
• Various future landside transportation system changes are also proposed including an Intermodal ground transportation link to the Miami Intermodal Centre.
• A new taller air traffic control tower is under construction due west of the existing tower to provide unobstructed sight-lines to airfield movement areas.

The airport projects are an immense rolling programme of works involving numerous suppliers, many of them from within the USA. The risk for the airport is that the predictions of massive passenger growth will fall short of fulfilment, leaving the airport with a series of expensive expansion programmes which are unjustified by the future revenue.