{"id":196055,"date":"2026-03-18T08:20:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196055\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:20:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:20:28","slug":"clear-skies-the-winning-factor-in-miamis-airport-site-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196055\/","title":{"rendered":"Clear skies the winning factor in Miami\u2019s airport site derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tWritten by Michael Lewis<\/a> on March 18, 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\"Clear<\/p>\n

As officials and consultants assessed sites for a commercial airport to handle more flights than Miami International Airport within a half century, the governing criterion was not suitability but turbulence.<\/p>\n

They looked at eight sites and ruled out five based on how big the barriers were to use as an airport, not on how well they could do the job. The three \u201cwinners\u201d are those that the study said face the least friction.<\/p>\n

For example, in looking at a commercial airport for Homestead Air Reserve Base, the study notes that \u201ckey political figures, including [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio and Rep. Carlos Gim\u00e9nez, have voiced strong opposition\u2026\u201d The rejected sites were viewed as facing extensive turbulence from \u201cpast stakeholder opposition\u201d while the three still in the race were found to face clearer skies.<\/p>\n

Last week, when Miami Today revealed the study and its preliminary results, a fistful of readers wrote that one or another of the rejected sites would be best for a major airport to use in conjunction with, and eventually outpace, Miami International. The critics had reasons for looking beyond the anointed sites, but they cited suitability, not the ease of getting a deal done \u2013 which was the ticket for admission to the finals in the airport derby.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the experts\u2019 thinking, starting with 5,000-acre minimum size \u2013 although by that standard you could throw out Miami International, which has only 3,300. When flights started there in 1928 the airport was suburban and land was abundant. Now it\u2019s surrounded by one of the nation\u2019s most populous urban areas.<\/p>\n

In a chart called a \u201chigh level site evaluation matrix,\u201d the study lists only five criteria: environmental and regulatory constraints, past stakeholder opposition, airspace compatibility, expansion potential, and competing interests. Every discarded site is burdened with extensive impacts in at least two of those five categories.<\/p>\n

Sites not ruled out by impacts shown in the chart as big red barriers are expansions of Miami Executive Airport or Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport or a new airport between the two. They remain in the running, and we\u2019ll return to them.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s look first at the five sites that were ruled out, and why.<\/p>\n

What was intended to be the world\u2019s largest commercial airport was the Everglades Jetport, 39 square miles in the Big Cypress National Preserve 50 miles west of Miami International Airport. The county acquired it in 1968 and built the first runway but then cancelled the project based on what remain formidable environmental barriers. Though the study doesn\u2019t say so, that land was taken from the county and now detains immigrants under the state\u2019s snappy title of Alligator Alcataz.<\/p>\n

Also ruled out was Site 14, once intended to replace Miami Executive Airport and eventually Miami International Airport on 23 square miles west of the Florida Turnpike and Krome Avenue and south of the Broward County line. Environmental studies also shut down that plan. It was ruled out of the current study with four big red boxes on the spreadsheet.<\/p>\n

Most of Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport \u201cis currently under a long-term lease which would be unavailable for future development,\u201d the study noted, and \u201cprevious efforts to convert the airport for commercial service have consistently received strong opposition from local officials.\u201d Cross it off the list.<\/p>\n

Homestead Air Reserve Base, which the county two decades ago considered its main target for a second major commercial airport, \u201cis not considered a viable option\u201d because that would interfere with the base\u2019s military use, the study said. It wouldn\u2019t pass environmental muster and it \u201ccould encourage urban development projects \u2013 such as a proposed Amazon logistics center north of the base, which would require expanding Miami-Dade County\u2019s Urban Development Boundary, further stressing natural resources,\u201d the study said in nixing that site.<\/p>\n

Opa-Locka West Airport, which the study ruled out, was decommissioned in 2006, and PortMiami is exploring the development of an inland port at the 420-acre site to support increasing cargo volumes by expanding storage capacity.<\/p>\n

The three sites still in the race all have their own issues, including the ability to expand to the size needed by a new airport \u2013 Miami Executive Airport has only 1,380 acres of the 5,000 needed, Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport has just 796 acres, and a brand-new airport would have to acquire all 5,000 acres.<\/p>\n

In addition, all three would need upgrades of the County Development Master Plan and an expansion of the Urban Development Boundary, which would be only slightly more popular than having a new airport operated by Russia or China.<\/p>\n

The study notes that Miami Executive Airport has been designated a Florida spaceport territory, so whatever expansions planned there would have to fit into the spaceport mold, which is certainly uncharted territory.<\/p>\n

Finally, if a new airport were placed between Miami Homestead and Miami Executive airports, flights there \u201cmay require the decommissioning of either airport\u201d because of airspace constraints. That could add to capacity needs at the new airport and unsettle current customers.<\/p>\n

By the scorecard of the study, there are no clear winners in an airport derby, just five clear losers. Let the political jockeying begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written by Michael Lewis on March 18, 2026 Advertisement As officials and consultants assessed sites for a commercial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-196055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196055","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=196055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}