“We are already seeing some improvements,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS.
Poor planning? Did they not foresee that passenger traffic would increase by millions each year to over 50 million and that elevators, escalators, moving walkways for pedestrians and luggage and public toilets would be used more and therefore need more attention?
“When I took office as mayor, I knew that there was no good maintenance budget,” the councillor claimed.
“I learned that the airport had not made additional investments to replace that equipment in a timely manner or to maintain it properly,” he said.
In other words, the county government, including the Board of Commissioners, did not address the situation in time.
However, a multi-billion dollar $5 billion project was approved in 2019 to expand MIA’s operational capacity and address deficiencies.
But the delay is evident, whether due to bureaucracy or other difficulties.
Another investment, in late 2023, totaled $1.6 billion to build a new hotel and an additional parking building.
The investment includes $681 million to modernize elevators, escalators, moving walkways for pedestrians and luggage, and public restrooms.
Why did they take so long at the MIA?
Asked why it took so long to make improvements when several MIA directors reported deficiencies, the mayor stressed: “We ask everyone to understand that we inherited a problem that we are addressing vigorously.”
DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS contacted current federal congressman and former mayor of Miami-Dade Carlos Giménez to obtain his response to the allegation that the MIA problem was inherited from previous administrations.
“My administration set aside $5 billion to fix the airport problems. She (the mayor) had the money and what did she do in almost four years. I will tell you why she didn’t do it. Because she was more interested in making sure the employees were unionized instead of taking care of the airport,” Gimenez replied.
The mayor stressed that “elevators, escalators and moving sidewalks have a natural life of perhaps 25 years, and were not serviced before.”
“Almost all of them have been in operation for 30, 35, 40 years or even longer. There is even a 69-year-old escalator that had been in operation until recently,” he said.
“That cannot be repaired. It must be replaced,” he added.
MIA had a subcontracted maintenance company, in order to save on higher salaries and benefits, but it apparently showed deficiencies.
“We found out that they were not working evenings or weekends. I tried to terminate that contract and they took us to court. We had to fight for two years to be eligible for another contract. Now the new service provider works longer hours and does a better job,” she said.
According to data provided by the mayor, maintenance work is being carried out at various service points, such as lifts, escalators and moving walkways for pedestrians and luggage. However, the repair process causes the use of these devices to be affected “around 9% of the time”, meaning that they would be out of service less than 10% of the time.
“It is not good that they are out of service for that long, but it is much less time than before,” he stressed.
“Fixations take time,” Mayor Levine Cava said.
MIA details
Just by using the airport you will notice that, at any given time, there are elevators, escalators, moving walkways and even baggage carousels out of service.
In the parking lots, there are many elevators that are “out of service” and passengers must look for an alternative route, a ramp or stairs, to carry their luggage.
“I didn’t expect Miami airport, one of the most important in the United States, to have these deficiencies,” said a passenger from Bogotá, Colombia, after disembarking from the Emirates flight.
Another passenger, a Miami resident, shook his head in disapproval and said: “It is a great shame. We, who are the gateway to the Americas, have this disaster.”
In corridor E, where some of the most important international flights pass through, including those from Europe, the bathroom door has a screw as a safety piece to keep it closed.
Passengers, with hand luggage in tow, watch in amazement as they have to walk 200 to 300 metres without being able to use moving walkways.
In the immigration area, where passports are checked, the waiting time varies depending on the number of flights. But that is not a matter for the county government. The federal agency’s investment is what prevails.
Then, when passengers arrive at the baggage claim area, especially those from domestic origin, there is a constant wait and so is the possibility of a conveyor belt breaking.
In September, the Skytrain monorail, which carries thousands of passengers through Terminal D, was stopped for six months due to structural problems.
How to prevent a bad experience at MIA
The bad experience at least serves to prevent future problems. If we are to further increase passenger flow, because MIA generates billions of dollars and helps maintain hundreds of thousands of jobs, it is essential to ensure the best operation of the airport.
“We have adopted a new approach,” the mayor said. “We are getting ahead of problems with prevention,” she said.
“It is very expensive to maintain an airport of this size, but in total we are investing an unprecedented amount of 9 billion. Of the nearly 330 bathrooms we have there, we are in the process of replacing 200 of them. We have even created a lightning team to quickly fix smaller things like an out-of-order bathroom or a light that doesn’t work. We have made good progress. And we have many things in the process of doing them,” he concluded.
