After Setbacks, Airport Traffic and Work Is Moving Over Miami
Uncertainty buffeted Miami International Airport's $6.1-billion capital expansion plans with hurricane-like force in 2002 as passenger traffic waned and American Airlines faced possible bankruptcy. But the skies are clearing-or rather filling up again as air traffic revives-and airport officials are moving ahead with a trimmed-down program of $4.8 billion that will include intermodal connections and two new terminals.
"For the next two years, $50 million a month will be spent on construction," says Narinder S. Jolly, assistant aviation director for MIA. Before 9/11, the airport estimated that it would handle 48 million passengers a year by 2010. Now that figure has been revised to 37 million, resulting in a $600-million cut, says Jolly. That has postponed construction improvements to the central terminal, two existing concourses, a parking garage and a connecting road.