Miami International Airport enjoys busiest day since beginning of pandemic

Miami International Airport (MIA) experienced its busiest day since the pandemic began when it handled 90,000 passengers on January 3.

The total helped ensure that the Florida gateway welcomed more than 1.1 million passengers during the 17-day winter holiday travel period from Monday, December 21 to Wednesday, January 6, 2021.

In December, MIA averaged 278 daily departures and 44,818 daily seats, with hub carrier American Airlines handling 68% of that capacity, followed by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

The upward trend toward pre-pandemic levels at MIA is expected to continue, thanks to several airlines launching Miami service and existing carriers expanding service.

On November 15, low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines launched its first-ever daily flights at MIA to four destinations: Baltimore; Chicago (Midway Airport); Houston (Hobby Airport); and Tampa.

Meanwhile Southwest’s flights to Baltimore four times daily and Tampa three times daily have increased MIA’s existing service to those cities, while its four daily flights to Houston Hobby and daily flight to Chicago Midway provide new Miami service to those airports.

The airport notes that on December 15, low-fare carrier Frontier Airlines announced that it will be expanding its route network at MIA to a total of 27 destinations in 2021 with six additional routes, including its first flights from Miami to four international destinations: Cancun, Mexico (March, four weekly); Guatemala City, Guatemala (April, three weekly); San Salvador, El Salvador (April, four weekly); and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (December 2020, three weekly).

Frontier will also begin daily service to Orlando in February and four weekly flights in April to Ontario – an entirely new route for MIA.

Low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways will launch its first-ever flights at MIA on February 11 with service to four US cities: Boston (up to four times daily); Los Angeles (up to twice daily); New York-JFK (up to four times daily); and Newark (up to four times daily).

“MIA’s ongoing success in safely building back our passenger numbers has been a team effort between our airline partners, federal agencies and service providers,” says MIA’s director and CEO, Lester Sola.

“Passenger confidence in air travel continues to grow, and the strength of the Miami travel market has weathered the storm of the pandemic.”