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MIA Connections: Fall 2009 - Spring 2010 - Summer 2010 - Fall 2010
MIA RENTAL CAR CENTER OPENS JULY 13
The four-level facility, located just east of MIA on Le Jeune Road, includes a customer service lobby for all 16 companies on the main level and three levels for vehicle storage and maintenance. With the capacity for 6,500 vehicles, the RCC is the second-largest rental car facility in the U.S. It is also the first of its kind in the U.S. to have an above-ground fueling system, which provides more efficient vehicle turnaround times on all three storage levels. A consolidated shuttle bus service will transport rental car customers between the arrivals level at MIA and the RCC. The MIA Mover, an automated people mover system under construction, will replace the shuttle service when completed in the fall of 2011. For more information, go to http://www.miami-airport.com/cip_rcc.asp.
Gates D-1 to D-20, formerly known as Concourse A, will open to the traveling public in July, adding 16 renovated gates and two new gates to the 50-gate “super” concourse that handles nearly 70 percent of MIA’s total passenger traffic. North Terminal’s third security checkpoint, which provides direct access to the 18 new gates, also opens in July. North Terminal will then have 42 operational gates, with only two remaining to open this year and the last six in 2011. Concourse A, which closed temporarily in November 2008 to expedite North Terminal construction, has been renamed and is now an extension of Concourse D. COMING SOON TO NORTH TERMINAL
The renovation and re-opening of the lower Concourse D gates is just the first of many milestones fast approaching at MIA’s North Terminal. Also opening this year in North Terminal are more than 40 new restaurants and stores. For more information, go to http://www.miami-airport.com/cip_north_terminal.asp. FOUR AIRLINES START NEW FLIGHTS IN JUNE Miami International Airport (MIA) welcomed four new flights in June and is scheduled to receive two others in the fall. On June 3, Alitalia commenced three times weekly non-stop service from Milan to MIA, which is in addition to the airline's current daily non-stop service from Rome to Miami. The flight operates Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays with Boeing B767-400 aircraft. French carrier CorsairFly began scheduled passenger and cargo service to MIA from Paris Orly Airport on June 11. The new service will operate twice weekly initially with an Airbus A330-200 until July 2 when the airline will transition to a Boeing B747-400 configured for 582 seats. CorsairFly is a member of the TUI group of airlines and travel services. On June 19, Air Europa renewed its seasonal, once-weekly non-stop service from MIA to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. Finally, Aeromexico began daily non-stop service from Miami to Monterrey on June 28 - the only service from MIA to this north Mexican destination. In the fall, Transaero Airlines is scheduled to begin passenger and cargo service between Moscow and MIA on October 29. The new service will operate twice weekly on Tuesday and Friday using Boeing B747-400 aircraft. Transaero, Russia's second largest carrier, is a privately held airline based at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport and operates a growing fleet of Boeing aircraft. Additionally, Air Berlin is scheduled to commence new service to Berlin from MIA on November 1 through April 28, 2011. Air Berlin provides connections from Berlin to other destinations in Europe and Tel Aviv, Israel. With the Berlin service, MIA will be serving four points in Germany: Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Munich and Berlin. AMERICAN AIRLINES WINS CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD AGAIN The American Airlines Operations team at MIA won the airline’s Customer Cup – the highest customer service achievement within the company - in the first quarter of 2010 after also winning the award in the fourth quarter of 2009. AA’s Miami Team is the first hub in the history of the Customer Cup to win the award in back-to-back quarters. The Miami AA Team received the honor for achieving significant improvements in seven customer experience areas: likelihood of customers to recommend AA; overall flight experience; overall handling of a delay; aircraft cleanliness; flight attendants referring to customers by name; flight attendants personally thanking customers for flying AA; and condition of aircraft interior. RETIRED SCHOOL TEACHER WINS VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD After teaching elementary school in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system for 45 years and earning master’s and doctorate degrees in education, Miami Springs resident Carol Dunstall decided that she wanted to do more to educate her community and became a Volunteer Ambassador at MIA. In recognition of her hundreds of volunteer hours and tireless efforts to assist travelers, Dunstall was named MIA’s Volunteer Ambassador of the Year at the airport’s Volunteer Ambassador Recognition Gala on Friday, April 23. “Whether it’s decorating the Volunteer Ambassador office, driving travelers to their concourse on the courtesy trolley, or using her sign language skills to connect with the hearing-impaired, volunteers like Carol are raising the bar for customer service excellence at MIA,” said Dickie Davis, Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD) Terminal Operations and Customer Service Division Director. Dunstall received a plaque and two tickets from American Airlines to travel anywhere in the Continental U.S., the Caribbean, Canada or Mexico. For more information about volunteering at MIA, please visit http://www.miami-airport.com/volunteer_program.asp. PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITIONS OPEN IN CENTRAL, NORTH TERMINALS Two new photography exhibitions are now on display at MIA. People Places Things, a collection of 18 photographs depicting “small events and ordinary days” by South Florida photographer and college professor Peggy Levison Nolan, is now on display at the new Camera Works photography gallery at Miami International Airport’s North Terminal. The exhibition is the first for the gallery, which is dedicated to showcasing contemporary photography on a rotating basis, and is located between gates D-22 and D-25. Nolan is a mostly self-taught photographer and single mother of seven who is also a full-time staff member of the Art and Art History Department at Florida International University, where she received both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree. Her work is collected by major institutions including New York’s MOMA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Martin Z. Margulies Collection. “Her work is a treasure hunt through her mostly empty house and the result of endless curiosity about the world in front of her camera,” said Yolanda Sanchez, PhD, Miami-Dade Aviation Department Division Director of Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs. 2010, a collection of photographs by 30-year veteran architect and award-winning photographer James Palma, is now on display at MIA’s mia Central Terminal gallery. Palma’s exhibition is a catalog of 20 photographs selected as winners by the National American Institute of Architects (AIA) over 10 years. Each year, the winning photographs were exhibited at the National AIA Convention in 10 different cities across the United States. Palma, currently a project manager with Coral Gables-based architecture firm Rodriguez and Quiroga, has won numerous awards for his photography and his photographs have been used in several corporate and private collections. His most recent collection focuses on memorial sculpture in Rome, Florence and Milan. 2010 is on exhibit at the mia Central Terminal Gallery, located just past the Concourse E security checkpoint. For more information, go to http://www.miami-airport.com/mia_galleries.asp.
NORTH TERMINAL FOOD COURT NAMED BEST IN MIAMI The wide variety of eating options at MIA’s North Terminal caught the attention of the Miami New Times weekly newspaper, earning it “Best Food Court” honors in the publication’s annual “Best of Miami” issue published in June. The newspaper noted that, “the selections at Miami International Airport's North Terminal (post-security, especially) give travelers a good taste of some pretty recognizable local offerings, so it deserves cred. Tourists who get to the airport late or go straight to South Beach would miss out on Little Havana's top menu items (AKA some of the finest Cuban eats in the city), if not for Café Versailles and La Carreta representing at MIA.” It also mentions: “Even those who skipped Nobu or SushiSamba can get a bite of fresher fish than they have back in Minnesota, for sure, at Sushi Maki. It's a decent place for not only a roll or two but also entertainment — check out the "Fun With Chopsticks" illustrations on the utensil packaging… Traditionalists can also find hot dogs, pizza, Chinese food, and French-style baked goods that seem perfect for breakfast when you have a 6 a.m. flight and nothing but anti-airsickness pills in your stomach. Got a craving for sweets? Down fudge and brownies at Boca Bites and a ring or two of glazed goodness at Dunkin Donuts. If you're just plain ol' thirsty, there's Coffee Beanery, Starbucks, Corona Beach House, and Tradewinds Bar.” To read the complete article, go to: http://www.miami-airport.com/pdfdoc/clip_newtimes-bestof.pdf. MIA Connections: Fall 2009 - Spring 2010 - Summer 2010 - Fall 2010 |
