Transportation & Infrastructure
| More

Rough Landing: Miami Airport Deals With a $1 Billion Debt

Real-life sinkholes are a problem in South Florida, but the one giving Miami-Dade County officials headaches these days is figurative: Miami International Airport's finances.

BY: | March 2007



Real-life sinkholes are a problem in South Florida, but the one giving Miami-Dade County officials headaches these days is figurative: Miami International Airport's finances.

The airport is engaged in a massive overhaul that will increase capacity by millions of passengers. "What we're into," says John Cosper, deputy director of MIA's capital improvement program, "is the largest expansion of a terminal area in an operating airport that's ever been done."

But it is not without travails. The project began inauspiciously in the 1990s, when MIA agreed to create a new terminal for American Airlines. Other airlines sued and, as part of the settlement, they got a new terminal, too.

The latter project, the South Terminal, is expected to open this summer, two years late. The bigger problem, however, is with American's North Terminal. Ballooning costs--higher prices for construction materials and a hot local construction market--helped create a $1 billion shortfall in MIA's capital improvement program.

Officials think things have begun to turn around since 2005. That's when the Miami-Dade County Commission took control of the North Terminal renovation from American, which was initially managing the project. Commissioners tweaked the design to cut costs and hired a new team to oversee the project. That wasn't enough, however, to prevent Moody's Investors Service from downgrading the airport's credit rating late last year. Against that backdrop, commissioners will be voting soon on whether to authorize bonds to pay for the additional $1 billion.


If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for updates.

Josh Goodman
Josh Goodman

Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..

E-mail: mailbox@governing.com
Twitter: @governing

Comments



Add Your Comment

You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. GOVERNING reserves the right to remove comments that are considered profane, vulgar, obscene, factually inaccurate, off-topic, or considered a personal attack.

Comments must be fewer than 2000 characters.

Latest from Transportation & Infrastructure


More From Transportation & Infrastructure

GOVERNING Data

Events & Webinars

  • It’s A Paperless, Paperless World..... Thinking Outside the Box to Gain Efficiencies through Prepaid Cards
  • April 23, 2013
  • Public sector organizations are under intense scrutiny to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible and with maximum transparency. An important consideration is the way in which payments are made and managed. Prepaid cards can offer flexibility, security and accountability to governments as a method of dispersing benefits, healthcare and social care payments, child benefits and housing benefits to their constituents.


More Events & Webinars


© 2011 e.Republic, Inc. All Rights reserved.    |   Privacy Policy   |   Site Map