Early airfields and airports grew from the use of airplanes for military, agricultural, airmail, and even aerial observation purposes. Equipped with grass or dirt runways, they were not very pleasant places for those passengers who first flew once US scheduled airline service began in 1926. Arriving and departing aircraft blasted dirt, pebbles, and grit into the passengers' faces as they walked exposed through all types of weather and climbed open stairways onto their planes. Eventually, procedures changed so that aircraft could warm up away from the passengers, then be pushed to the boarding area by hand with the engine off, boarded, and restarted with the doors closed. Many of these airfields originated as a result of the airmail system created in the United States just after World War I. As postal officials laid plans for a transcontinental airmail system between New York and San Francisco via Chicago in 1920, they persuaded many local communities to build the necessary facilities for the service in what became a “triumphal procession” across the country. Many of our largest airports can trace their beginnings back to those early days and this is the fourth installment in a series which will trace the growth and development of what are today some of the largest airports in the nation. Next up: Miami International Airport (MIA).
The first airport on the site of what is today MIA opened in the 1920s and was known as Miami City Airport. Pan American World Airways opened an expanded facility adjacent to City Airport known as Pan American Field in 1928. Pan American Field was built on 116 acres of land on 36th Street and was the only mainland airport in the eastern United States that had port of entry facilities. Its runways were located around the threshold of today's Runway 26R. Eastern Air Lines began to serve Pan American Field in 1931, followed by National Airlines in 1936. National used a terminal on the opposite side of LeJeune Road from the airport and would stop traffic on the road in order to taxi aircraft to and from its terminal. Miami Army Airfield opened in 1943 during World War II to the south of Pan American Field. While the two fields were originally separated by railroad tracks, the two were listed in some directories as a single facility.
Following the war in 1945, the City of Miami established a Port Authority and raised bond revenue to purchase Pan American Field. It merged with the former Miami Army Airfield, which was purchased from the US Army Air Force in 1949 and expanded further in 1951. US Air Force Reserve troop carriers and rescue squadrons also operated from the airport from 1949 through 1959, when the last unit relocated to nearby Homestead Air Force Base (now Homestead Air Reserve Base). Pan Am and Eastern Airlines also constructed maintenance bases in Miami in the late 1940s, which made it the world's largest commercial aircraft maintenance and overhaul facility.
Growth was a constant throughout the next several decades. Nonstop flights to Chicago and Newark started in late 1946, but nonstops didn't reach west beyond St. Louis and New Orleans until until 1962. Air Florida had a hub at MIA, with a nonstop flight to London, which it acquired from National upon the latter's merger with Pan American. British Airways flew the Concorde three times per week between Miami and London via Washington Dulles Airport from 1984 to 1991. The terminal itself was repeatedly renovated and expanded through the 1990s to create the modern MIA complex. After former Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman became president of Eastern Air Lines in 1975, he moved company headquarters from Rockefeller Center in New York City to Miami and the airline remained one of the largest employers in the Miami metropolitan area until ongoing labor union unrest, coupled with the airline's acquisition by Texas Air in 1986, ultimately forced the airline into bankruptcy in in 1989. It ceased operations in early 1981, thereby creating a vacuum at the Miami Airport. Enter American Airlines which had already been active at the airport for several years.
Amid Eastern's turmoil, American’s then-CEO Robert Crandall sought a new hub in order to utilize new aircraft which AA had on order. Their studies showed that Delta Air Lines would provide strong competition on most routes from Eastern's hub at Atlanta, but that MIA had many key routes only served by Eastern. American Airlines announced that it would establish a base at the airport in August of 1988. Texas Air’s Frank Lorenzo considered selling Eastern's profitable Latin American routes to American as part of a Chapter 11 reorganization of Eastern in early 1989, but backed out in a last-ditch effort to rebuild their MIA hub. The effort quickly proved futile, and American Airlines purchased the routes (including the route authority between Miami and London then held by Eastern's sister company Continental Airlines) in a liquidation of Eastern which was completed in 1990. Later in the decade, American transferred more employees and equipment to MIA from its underperforming domestic hubs at both Nashville and Raleigh-Durham. The Miami hub grew from 34 daily departures in 1989 to a peak of 301 in 1995, including long-haul flights to Europe and South America. Today, Miami is American's largest air freight hub and is the main connecting point in the airline's north–south international route network.
Other airlines remained active in serving the populous Miami metropolitan area, but change was inevitable. Pan Am was acquired by Delta in 1991, but filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter. Its remaining international routes from Miami to Europe and Latin America were sold to United for $135 million as part of Pan American's emergency liquidation that December. United’s Latin American hub offered 24 daily departures in the summer of 1992, growing to 36 daily departures to 21 destinations in the summer of 1994, but never expanded further. In fact, United ended flights from Miami to South America, and shut down its Miami crew base in May of 2004, reallocating most of its Miami resources to its main hub at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
In 2008, MIA had 92 scheduled carriers and 33 charter airlines flying to five continents, with more than 3,000 weekly flights to over 180 cities worldwide. MIA was the second- busiest international passenger airport in the United States and led the nation in international cargo volume. From a small 116-acre facility that handled 8,600 passengers and 20 tons of cargo a year, MIA had evolved into a 3,230-acre giant supporting a multi- billion dollar industry, handling more than 34 million passengers and nearly two million tons of cargo. By 2019, MIA served a record-high 45.9 million annual passengers. It also offered more flights to Latin America and the Caribbean than any other US airport, was America’s third-busiest airport for international passengers and was the top American airport for international freight. Additionally, MIA was the leading economic engine for Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida, generating business revenue of $31.9 billion annually and welcoming about 60 percent of all international visitors to Florida.
MIA’s vision is to grow from a recognized hemispheric hub to a global airport of choice that offers customers a world-class experience and an expanded route network with direct passenger and cargo access to all world regions. They are most assuredly on track.
Until next time…safe travels.
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