Security worries strap Miami Seaport, Airport
By Ina Paiva Cordle, The Miami Herald

With the nation on heightened alert, the Port of Miami-Dade’s security costs have nearly doubled in two years and the port’s greatest challenge is finding the funding for future operating expenses, Seaport Director Charles Towsley said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Miami International Airport’s passenger volume remains 11 percent below pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels and is not expected to recover until 2006. Its airlines are grappling with low fares, reduced demand, high fuel costs, competition from discount airlines, the threat of war, and U.S. and Latin American economic concerns, Miami-Dade Aviation Director Angela Gittens said.

The directors of the airport and seaport, Miami-Dade’s two largest economic generators, presented updates of their operations Wednesday at the 16 th annual State of the Ports luncheon at the Radisson Mart Plaza, sponsored by the World Trade Center Miami.

Security is “at the top of the agenda” at the world’s busiest cruise port, where fencing and a new command center with a closed-circuit television camera system are planned, Towsley said. The seaport’s cruise traffic jumped 7.4 percent to 3.6 million passengers in fiscal 2002, while cargo traffic rose 5.3 percent to 8.7 million tons. Revenue increased 5.9 percent to $80.68 million.

Meanwhile, Towsley said security costs rose from $4.1 million in fiscal 2001 to $6.62 million fiscal 2002, and are budgeted at $7.64 million this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The seaport is building two new cruise terminals and renovating two others.

Miami International Airport’s $4.8 billion expansion project, the largest of any operating airport in the country, has $2.4 billion in projects under construction. At the same time, the new concession program is out to bid, with proposals for 37 spaces covering 40,000 square feet due in April, Gittens said.

The quality of the airport’s retail stores and restaurants has often been criticized in the past.

Several new restaurants opened in the last year, including Chili’s. It rang up the equivalent of $6 million in annual sales.

“People were unnecessarily leaving MIA with money in their pockets,” Gittens said. “We just need to give them something to spend it on.”