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Welcoming the World to Miami  North Terminal’s new three-level international arrivals facility, now serving MIA hub carrier American Airlines and all other carriers in concourses D, E and F, began welcoming the world to Miami on July 31, 2012. The new facility features: a 72-lane federal inspection area capable of serving 2,000 passengers per hour upon their arrival to the U.S.; six dedicated lanes for expedited Global Entry processing; a spacious new second-level baggage claim area with five baggage claim carrousels; and a new greeter's lobby for easy access to all ground transportation. See below for information about connections to: |
News Clips:
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July 31, 2012 |
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In the News:
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A new international arrivals center just about completes the years-long, $3 billion north terminal project at MIA. The final phase of a long-awaited, multi-billion dollar Miami International Airport improvement project wraps up Tuesday. The new $180 million international arrivals center, a 400,000-square-foot facility on three levels, starts processing an average of 22,000 people a day after nearly three years of construction.
Tuesday’s opening essentially completes a $3 billion project to expand, beautify and modernize the airport’s north terminal that has been in the works since the mid-1990s. Eleven years after the groundbreaking, all the construction and pardon-our-dust disarray — not to mention cost overruns, delays and embarrassments — are nearly history. “It’s an amazing weight off my shoulders,” said Airport Director José Abreu, who has overseen the project since 2005. Some of the most recent highlights during the extended renovation include the $130 million Concourse D skytrain, which opened in September of 2010 and the new $220 million baggage handling system, which started operating in March. Those followed the $1.1 billion overhaul of the South Terminal, where Concourses H and J include airlines such as Delta, United, Lufthansa and Air France. This new federal inspection center should spare international travelers the long walks and disorganized lines that have plagued arrivals in the new north terminal, officials say. For now, Abreu said, the new federal arrivals center is about 85 percent done and the overall North Terminal is 95 percent complete. “The entire north terminal program has been extremely challenging because of staging,” he said. “We had to work while maintaining passenger traffic, sometimes through a maze to be able to turn as much area as we could over to the contractor. It has literally been like retiling your bathroom while you’re taking a shower.” Just added to the list of new airport amenities last weekend was the new $506 million Metrorail Orange Line that can connect travelers to downtown Miami.
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July 16, 2012 |
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Facility to allow faster processing
After a bit of a delay, the new customs and immigration wing at Miami International Airport is ready for its grand opening. Coming into the U.S. through MIA can be a real challenge. "Our old Concourse E facility had reached capacity, so at certain times, we reached a point where we couldn't process them all," said MIA Communications Director Greg Chin. "We had to send some passengers to temporary facilities." Convenience is key for international travelers. That is why the Sky Train drops them off just one floor above. As soon as they walk into the immigration hall, they realize how massive it is -- a full football field long. The new facility opens July 31 at a cost of $180 million. Its 72 passenger lanes are double the number at the old facility.
It also will include six global entry kiosks, which travelers can use for a small fee. All users have to do is have their passport scanned, their fingerprints taken and their retinas read, and if they are approved, they are on their way. Customs officers have just as much room behind a one-way mirrored wall, and a new baggage area is connected to American Airlines' fully automated baggage handling system. For security, there will be 25 inline explosive detection units at $1 million apiece, X-raying every piece of checked luggage. "We have five carousels that will open this month, and then at the end of March next year, we will have all 10 carousels working with the new baggage handling system," Chin said. In order to staff the new facility with immigration and customs officers, the airport will temporarily close Concourse E until further notice.
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July 16, 2012 |
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MIA moves 30,000-40,000 bags per day A new multimillion-dollar baggage system is now open at Miami International Airport, and demolition has begun on the old shed. The biggest phase of MIA's $2.9 billion North Terminal has been handled. "You're talking a fully automated system from the ticket counter to the aircraft. It gets screened for explosives and delivered to your gate," said MIA Communications Director Greg Chin.
A labyrinth of conveyor belts stretches a total of 14 miles through the airport. The system can handle 6,000 bags per hour, and currently moves 30,000 to 40,000 bags per day. The fully automated baggage handling system cost $220 million, but it has already processed more than 3 million bags and been handed over to American Airlines. Also, the demolition of MIA's old baggage shed makes room for three more gates. The old facility has been in operation for 20 years and was not only outdated, but it was in the way. "This is about 100,000 square feet of space and a lot of metal," Chin said. Now, American's new linear gates are more productive than the old bicycle hub and spoke design. "Flights are able to come in and out now like a two-way street with this baggage shed gone," Chin said. Officials said the new setup will allow American to operate 500 flights per day, rather than 300.
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July 11, 2012 |
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Miami International Airport has completed what Miami-Dade County's aviation director calls "probably the most significant milestone" in the $2.9 billion North Terminal: The $220 million automated baggage handling system has successfully concluded 105 days of operations. MIA's system is designed to screen and transport 6,400 bags per hour from the 1.3-mile-long North Terminal’s 152 ticket counters to 50 aircraft gates. The North Terminal is also known as Concourse D. The system has already handled more than 3 million bags (about 32,000 per day) and met its performance specifications, a news release from the county said. The system has 22 explosive detection machines, 12 miles of conveyor belts and scanners to identify tags on each bag to send it to the right gate. Miami-Dade Aviation Department Director José Abreu said, “The baggage system is the brain of this 3.5-million-square-foot facility, connecting all 50 gates, and without it North Terminal would not function effectively.
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Winter 2011 |
Project Leadership Gold Award Winner: Miami International Airport’s North Terminal |
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Miami International Airport's North Terminal Development Program is quickly nearing completion in 2012. Only the new international arrivals area and three gates remain to be opened in the 50-gate super concourse, which is used by American Airlines as its hub for Latin America and the Caribbean to serve more than 25 million passengers annually and provide more than 300 daily flights.
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October 4, 2011 |
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The Construction Owners Association of America (COAA) has selected Miami International Airport’s North Terminal Development Program as its 2011 Project Leadership Award Program Gold Award Winner, COAA’s highest honor.
According to the COAA, the Project Leadership Award is an annual awards program that recognizes owner’s excellence in project delivery. The Project Leadership Award program promotes leadership, professionalism and management excellence of owners involved in the design and construction process. The awards are open to both public and private owners who do not have to be members of COAA, and are open to renovation and new construction projects from any industry and of any size. In September, North Terminal was also named among 35 winners in Engineering News-Record Southeast’s 2011 Best Projects competition. North Terminal’s Concourse D skytrain and Regional Commuter Facility were joint Merit Award winners in the Transportation category. Engineering News-Record, published by McGraw-Hill, is one of the leading publications in the construction industry.
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September 12, 2011 |
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By the end of 2012, Miami International Airport (MIA) will have been transformed by completion of the North Terminal Development Program. MIA, which is operated by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, is the largest US gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean and is one of the leading international passenger and freight airports in the world. 96 different carriers are involved in shifting over two billion tons of freight annually and ensuring the safe travel of almost forty million passengers. MIA also has a reputation for aesthetics to live up to. Cited within the industry as one of the six most beautiful airports in America and among the top 15 in the world, it is imperative that any new development enhances the environment of calm and tranquility that its operators have sought to cultivate. “This has been a huge redevelopment project which is costing in the region of $3 billion,” states Juan Carlos Arteaga, who has held overall responsibility for the program since March 2006. The most significant challenge of his career to date has involved expanding and renovating five distinct concourses which have been remodeled into a state-of-the-art, 1.3-mile-long linear terminal.
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September 22, 2011 |
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Two new areas in MIA’s North Terminal have been named among 35 winners in Engineering News-Record Southeast’s 2011 Best Projects competition. North Terminal’s Concourse D skytrain and Regional Commuter Facility were joint Merit Award winners in the Transportation category. The Concourse D skytrain, which opened last September, connects passengers from one end of Concourse D to the other within a few minutes and has reduced the average walking time in North Terminal by 50 percent. The Regional Commuter Facility is a 50,000-square-foot extension of North Terminal that opened last August to serve American Eagle’s regional jet operations and includes two new concourse-level gates, a new passenger waiting area and outdoor walkways to 12 lower-level gates. Engineering News-Record, published by McGraw-Hill, is one of the leading publications in the construction industry.
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July 2011 |
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May 2011 |
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Over the last several years the Miami International Airport has had nearly one million square feet of epoxy terrazzo installed. The expansive concourse areas are decorated with over five thousand cast bronze elements. The artist's desire to create a "journey within the journey" is well communicated in the rendering of a "vortex in space" where multi-color epoxy terrazzo is used to bring the galaxies into a perspective that can be viewed by pedestrians. The black and white epoxy color mixes were poured together simultaneously and a variety of seven different seashells were placed by hand in certain areas. Where the two colors converge, a special technique was implemented in order to create the visual effect of the colors meeting naturally. There are few projects that showcase terrazzo's far-reaching potential quite like the North Terminal at Miami International Airport and when viewed in light of it artistic value, it is one of the nation's most impressive public art installations.
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April 9, 2011 |
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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Airline travel can involve unpleasant moments, from going through security to waiting out bad weather to watching thoughtless passengers with too much baggage. One way airlines and airports can enhance the experience is by making terminals pleasant places to be. These are multibillion dollar projects that take many years, so they involve major bets on the economy. For airlines, it can be difficult to quantify the financial benefit, but it is easy to make the case that gorgeous terminals like American's Terminal Eight at New York's Kennedy Airport provide a competitive advantage, given that international travelers in the New York area have a broad array of choices.
Miami International: It cost too much and it took too long, but the renovation of Miami International Airport is finally nearing completion. The project began in 1995, billed as a $975 million new terminal for hub carrier American. The scope and the cost both swelled. American's terminal ended up costing $3 billion, while other improvements, including a new terminal for United and its partners, brought the total cost to $6.4 billion. In 2010, passenger traffic at MIA grew 5.0%, to reach 35.7 million, as carriers added eight new international destinations including Berlin, Brasilia (on two carriers) and Moscow. International traffic accounted for 17 million passengers, making MIA the country's second biggest international airport after New York Kennedy. This year, the Skyteam alliance is growing, with Delta adding daily service to London Heathrow while KLM begins four weekly flights to Amsterdam. Other carriers plan Amsterdam and Lisbon service.
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March 15, 2011 |
American Airlines Announces Record-Breaking Numbers at Miami Hub |
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American Boards More Than 39,000 Passengers in a Single Day American Airlines today announced it has hit a record-breaking milestone for its operations at Miami International Airport (MIA). On Saturday, March 12, the airline boarded 39,283 passengers at MIA, a record day for the hub. Sunday, March 13, marked the second-highest figures for boarded passengers, with 38,914 customers traveling on American. “This is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Marilyn DeVoe, Vice President of American’s Miami hub. “Our flight schedule has been steadily increasing over the past years, and we know that these numbers will only continue to grow as MIA strengthens its reputation as a world-class travel center, thanks in part to the North Terminal.” American’s Miami hub now operates from the nearly completed North Terminal – a state-of-the-art facility with 48 international and domestic jet gates, a new people-mover system and expanded check-in and baggage facilities.
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February, 2011 |
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One of the last pieces in the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) mega-puzzle at Florida’s Miami International Airport – the transformation of its Concourses A through D into what is now called the North Terminal, is nearly complete: 44 of the North Terminal’s 50 gates were open by late 2010 and the last six will open this year. In August, 2010, American Eagle’s Regional Commuter Facility, complete with 12 hard stands and two full contact gates, officially opened. On September 15 passengers started using the Skytrain, built on the North Terminal’s roof. The US$2.94 billion North Terminal Development Program (NTDP), part of the biggest CIP for the airport since the 1950s, has involved replacing the ‘finger’ type concourse configuration with a more efficient, mile-long (1.6km) linear terminal. The work includes nine additional gates, 20 refurbished jet bridges and 28 new jet bridges from Thyssen- Krupp Airport Systems, 1,800,000ft² (167,185m²) of renovated space and 1,900,000ft² (176,472m²) of new construction, including a 400,000ft² (37,152m²) federal inspection facility. Current passenger throughput is about 36 million a year and the airport can now handle up to 56 million passengers a year.
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January 1, 2011 |
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The $855-million North Terminal Phase 1 represents one portion of the $2.95-billion Miami North Terminal Expansion program, created to handle the ever-increasing passenger traffic demands at Miami International Airport. Phase one consisted of 1.3 million sq ft of new construction and 1.1 million sq ft of renovation and involved the opening of 30 gates, more than 115 ticket counters, three Skytrain stations and approximately 5,000 ft of train guideway.
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January 12, 2011
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Miami International Airport was recently voted one of the top 15 most noteworthy airports in the 2011 Passenger Terminal World Annual Review. The airport copped the distinction for the range of retail offerings available in its North Terminal. The judges felt the terminal’s nearly 20 stores stocked a range of brand merchandise that evoked “South Florida chic, ” and offered items travelers could find in downtown Miami. Airport officials said they wanted to ensure travelers connecting through the hub with a lot of downtime had access to a variety of shopping outlets without having to leave the facility. “The new stores have brought an exciting atmosphere and image to the terminal, and we want to reflect that new spirit,” Greg Chin, communications director of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department said, responding to the award.
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