Miami International Airport's financial performance and environmental challenges

Adopt an Airport

The Miami International Airport (code MIA) generates upwards of $30 billion in revenue per year, bringing in the vast majority (70%) of all international visitors to the entire state of Florida ("About Us," 2017). Therefore, MIA is a gateway airport to Florida and not just Miami. Furthermore, MIA is the gateway airport linking Latin America and the Caribbean with the United States, with more flights to and from these regions than any other airport in the United States ("About Us," 2017). According to the Miami International Airport's own website, their goal is to become a "hemispheric hub," ("About Us," 2017). However, there are several impediments to MIA reaching its status, the main one being its outdated infrastructure and terminals, which are reflected in its outdated and clunky website.

Financial Performance

One of the key strengths of MIA is the role the airport plays in the community, as a major employer but also as a superlative regional transportation hub for both passengers and freight. MIA ranks number one in the United States for international freight, and second in international passengers ("About Us," 2017). However, MIA just barely makes it into the top ten airports in the world in terms of international freight transport ("About Us," 2017).

MIA is instrumental for contributing jobs to the community, both because of its freight and its passenger operations, not to mention the role the airport plays in relaying visitors from around the world into the city of Miami. According to the MIA website, over 280,000 jobs are directly or indirectly linked to the Miami International Airport: a quarter of all the jobs in the entire Miami-Dade county ("About Us," 2017). Because the closest next airport is Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, a far smaller venue, MIA retains its dominant market position in the region in spite of some of its terminals and services having not been upgraded for many years.

Conclusions

In spite of the need to upgrade some of the MIA terminals and its website, MIA is an airport that continues to perform well both financially and even environmentally. Recent upgrades to MIA, over the past five years, have made some improvements to terminals. As a result, MIA has been able to welcome a host of new airlines from around the world including Qatar cargo, and also budget airlines like WOW Air from Iceland. The diversification of the MIA portfolio shows that the airport is equally as dedicated to its cargo/freight and passenger/tourism role in the local community.