{"id":143109,"date":"2026-02-04T08:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/143109\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:42:09","slug":"mayor-adds-second-miami-international-airport-watchdog-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/143109\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor adds second Miami International Airport watchdog team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tWritten by Miami Today<\/a> on February 4, 2026<\/p>\n

\"www.miamitodaynews.com\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Advertisement\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Mayor<\/p>\n

Miami International Airport is on the runway to face not just one but two watchdogs probing its image and passenger experience as Miami-Dade\u2019s top economic engine.<\/p>\n

Even as plans for a seven-member board envisioned by county commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez head toward a March 9 airing, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava last week unveiled her own 14-member team. She promised her group would produce a list of \u201cactionable deliverables\u201d within 180 days.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rodriguez is in line to appoint two of the seven-member panel he\u2019s initiating with the mayor naming one. The mayor last week named all 14 of her own team last week.<\/p>\n

As Miami Today reported Jan. 22, Mr. Rodriguez titled his group the Consumer Advisory for Response Experience at MIA (CARE-MIA). The mayor\u2019s is the MIA Forward Flight Team.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s memo said her team \u201cwill complement\u201d Mr. Rodriguez\u2019s board in strengthening the airport.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rodriguez\u2019s legislation says his board would be \u201ca structured and transparent mechanism for receiving first-hand, practical, and expert input to ensure that MIA provides the best overall experience possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Levine Cava wrote that \u201cwith customer satisfaction up, record growth ahead and MIA\u2019s biggest year yet on the horizon, this is the moment to raise the standard even higher and take the next bold step forward.\u201d A notice said the mayor\u2019s group \u201cwill swiftly begin a review of existing operations and identify key areas of opportunity for enhancement of MIA.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s memo cited four targets. One is operations, including congestion, ride-share pickup, aging infrastructure, staffing shortages, customs efficiency and on-time performance. Another includes modernizing terminals, multilingual services and tourism friendliness.<\/p>\n

A third cluster for will be aesthetics, beautification and airport cultural experiences. The fourth is \u201cstrengthening MIA\u2019s brand through recruitment, training, and retention\u201d of workers and upgrading customer experience as major events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches loom.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rodriguez\u2019s legislation says five of his seven-member group must be long-term residents who use the airport. They\u2019re to pinpoint improvements, continuously review operations and propose solutions to concerns, monitor Aviation Department records and \u201cserve as a forum at which individuals and groups can express concerns and provide suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The monitors whom the mayor has appointed represent \u201cdiverse perspectives across our tourism industry partners and workforce,\u201d her memo says. They clearly are familiar with the airport from the inside.<\/p>\n

They include JC Liscano, head of American Airlines at its Miami Hub, which handles two-thirds of all MIA passengers; the Aviation Department\u2019s chief of staff, Andria Muniz-Amador; and Jerome Falic, CEO of Duty Free Americas.<\/p>\n

Also on the mayor\u2019s team: Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau COO Rolando Aedo; Curtis Crider, CEO, Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association; G. Eric Knowles, CEO of the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce; Alfred Sanchez, CEO of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; and Franklin Sirmans, director of the Perez Art Museum Miami.<\/p>\n

Other members include an Uber lobbyist, a union political director, and the head of a passenger drivers association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written by Miami Today on February 4, 2026 Advertisement Miami International Airport is on the runway to face…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-143109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}