Miami holds its own in difficult Latin market
By Doug Newhouse |
Miami International Airport (MIA) managed a +1.68% increase to 7,085,064 international departing and arriving passengers in the first quarter of 2016 in a challenging environment. This compared with a four-month domestic passenger total which increased by +5.90% to 8,078,511 over the same period.
This would appear to be a good result, considering Miami is the US gateway airport to Latin America where the Brazilian and Argentinian economies continue to struggle.
According to Miami-Dade Aviation Department, marginal sub two per cent increases in international passenger numbers were recorded in the months of January with 1.9m (+1.75%) and February with 1.6m (+0.58%), while March improved with 1.8m (+4.34%), as April fell back to 1.6m (-0.14%)
This follows the surprisingly good result in calendar year 2015, when Miami reported a six per cent increase to 21.2m international passengers – despite the widespread economic decline in many key Latin American and European countries.
In total, annual passenger traffic grew by 3m extra passengers to 44.3m in 2015, helped by a +12% surge in domestic passenger numbers to 23.1m.
However, international passenger numbers to São Paulo in Brazil are said to be more than 60% down in the first quarter of this year which is significant, considering Brazil was the number one international destination for flights out of Miami in 2015.
Brazilians are also historically the highest spenders at Miami International Airport, but a crippling disadvantageous exchange rate is keeping many at home and real in their pockets when they are travelling. As a result However, the airport authority says it is now looking increasingly at diversifying its customer base as it tries to attract Asian carriers to the airport.
Top image: A view of Miami International Airport’s South Terminal. [PHOTE CREDIT: by Steven Brooke].
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