Miami International Airport

The first airport on the site of MIA opened in the 1920s when Pan American Airways shifted their operation from Key West to Miami. 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. Eastern Airlines began service there in 1931, followed by National Airlines in 1936. After World War II, Miami established a Port Authority and purchased Pan American Field, which had been since renamed 36th Street Airport, from Pan Am. In 1949, it merged with the former Miami Army Airfield and then expanded again in 1951. Non-stop flights to Chicago and Newark began in late 1946, with non-stop transatlantic flights to Europe starting up in 1970. American Airlines announced that it would establish a base at MIA in the summer of 1988. American moved more employees and equipment to MIA from its failed hubs in Nashville, Tennessee, and Raleigh–Durham, North Carolina. The hub increased from 34 daily departures in 1989 to 157 in 1990, 190 in 1992, and a peak of 301 in 1995. The airport is projected to process 77 million flyers and 4 million tons of freight annually by 2040. In order to accomplish this task, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners approved a $5 billion improvement plan that will conclude in 2035.

KMIA is in located in unincorporated area in Miami-Dade County, sitting just eight miles northwest of Downtown Miami, adjacent to the cities of Miami and Miami Springs, and the village of Virginia Gardens, and close to Doral and Hialeah. 

● Miami International Airport is one of the busiest airports on the globe, with over 80 airlines serving MIA to approximately 150 destinations around the world.

● MIA is American Airlines' primary gateway to Latin America, along with a domestic hub for its regional affiliate, American Eagle, in the United States. 

● Miami International Airport provides approximately one out of four jobs in the local economy.