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58-646: Miami International Airport ( IATA : MIA , ICAO : KMIA , FAA LID : MIA ) — also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field — is the primary international airport serving Miami , Florida and its metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 185 domestic and international destinations, including most countries in Latin America . The airport is in an unincorporated area in Miami-Dade County , 8 miles (13 km) west-northwest of Downtown Miami , in metropolitan Miami, adjacent to

116-728: A Miami hub in 1992, positioning a fleet of DC-9 aircraft at MIA to serve destinations in Central America and the Caribbean . The hub took advantage of rights granted under the 1991 bilateral aviation agreement between the United States and Spain. During the 1990s, the airport had sterile international-to-international transit facilities in Concourse D (American, British, and Alitalia) and Concourse F (Iberia and four Central American carriers), and there were plans to establish

174-587: A base at MIA in August 1988. Lorenzo considered selling Eastern's profitable Latin America routes to AA as part of a Chapter 11 reorganization of Eastern in early 1989 but backed out in a last-ditch effort to rebuild the MIA hub. The effort quickly proved futile, and American Airlines purchased the routes (including the route authority between Miami and London then held by Eastern sister company Continental Airlines ) in

232-495: A demand, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners approved a $ 5 billion improvement plan to take place over 15 years and concluding in 2035. The comprehensive plan includes concourse optimization, construction of two on-site luxury hotels, the demolition of Concourse G, and expansion of the airport's cargo capacity. Miami International Airport contains three terminals (North, Central, and South) and six concourses for

290-457: A flight to Atlanta in January 2000. Concourse A was built on the northeast side of the terminal in 1995, and Concourse H was rebuilt in 1997. Concourse J was built in August 2007 along with an expansion of the terminal on the south side. American began the development of the current North Terminal in the 1990s. Concourses B and C were demolished as part of the project with Concourse A becoming

348-440: A liquidation of Eastern which was completed in 1990. Later in the 1990s, American transferred more employees and equipment to MIA from its failed domestic hubs at Nashville, Tennessee , and Raleigh–Durham, North Carolina . The hub grew from 34 daily departures in 1989 to 157 in 1990, 190 in 1992, and a peak of 301 in 1995, including long-haul flights to Europe and South America . Today Miami is American's largest air freight hub and

406-567: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

464-481: A station at the MIC have been on hold since it was discovered that the platform built for that purpose was too short for Amtrak trains. As of early 2022, there is still no Amtrak service at the MIC. The rental car center consolidates airport car rental operations at the MIC. Miami International Airport has direct public transit service to Miami-Dade Transit 's Metrorail , Metrobus network; Greyhound Bus Lines and to

522-459: A sterile corridor for international connecting passengers between six concourses. However, the September 11, 2001, attacks made it necessary for many foreigners to obtain a visa in order to transit the United States, and as a result, United Airlines and Iberia closed their hubs in 2004. MIA is projected to process 77 million passengers and 4 million tons of freight annually by 2040. To meet such

580-427: A terminal on the opposite side of LeJeune Road from the airport and would stop traffic on the road in order to taxi aircraft to and from its terminal. Miami Army Airfield opened in 1943 during World War II to the south of Pan American Field. The runways of the two were originally separated by railroad tracks, but the two airfields were listed in some directories as a single facility. Following World War II in 1945,

638-401: A total of 131 gates. With the exception of Concourse G, all concourses contain gates to access U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities. American operates three Admirals Clubs and one Flagship Lounge across Concourses D & E. Numerous other lounges exist across the airport as well, including an American Express Centurion Lounge located in Concourse D. The North Terminal (Concourse D)

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696-511: A wing for American Eagle commuter flights. Pan Am was acquired by Delta Air Lines in 1991, but filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter. Its remaining international routes from Miami to Europe and Latin America were sold to United Airlines for $ 135 million as part of Pan Am's emergency liquidation that December. United's Latin American hub offered 24 daily departures in the summer of 1992, growing to 36 daily departures to 21 destinations in

754-601: Is South Florida 's main airport for long-haul international flights and a hub for the Southeastern United States with passenger and cargo flights to cities throughout the Americas, Europe , Africa , and Asia . It is the largest gateway between the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean and one of the largest airline hubs in the nation. The first airport on the site of MIA opened in the 1920s and

812-509: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

870-627: Is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

928-554: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

986-523: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1044-438: Is for the exclusive use of American Airlines. The Central Terminal (Concourses E, F, and G) has varied uses; Concourse E is mainly used by American and its Oneworld partner airlines along with some Caribbean and Latin American airlines, and E's satellite terminal has a gate that can accommodate an Airbus A380 . Concourses F and G are used by non-AA domestic and Canadian carriers and flights. The South Terminal (Concourses H and J)

1102-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1160-502: Is located on the west side of the airport, inside the triangle formed by Runways 12/30 and 9/27. Cargo carriers such as LATAM Cargo , Atlas Air , Amerijet International , and DHL operate from this area. The largest privately owned facility is the Centurion Cargo complex in the northeast corner of the airport, with over 51,000 m (550,000 sq ft) of warehouse space. FedEx and UPS operate their own facilities in

1218-543: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

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1276-423: Is served directly by Tri-Rail , Miami's commuter rail system, which began service on April 5, 2015. Tri-Rail connects MIA to northern Miami-Dade, Broward , and Palm Beach counties. Tri-Rail directly serves points north such as Boca Raton , Deerfield Beach , Delray Beach , Fort Lauderdale , Hollywood , Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach . MIA has a number of air cargo facilities. The largest cargo complex

1334-518: Is the 10th busiest airport in the U.S. with 17,500,096 passengers for the year. It is Florida 's busiest airport by total aircraft operations, total cargo traffic and total passenger traffic. The airport is American Airlines ' third-largest hub and serves as its primary gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean . Miami also serves as a focus city for Avianca , Frontier Airlines , and LATAM , both for passengers and cargo operations. Miami International Airport covers 1,335 hectares (3,300 acres). It

1392-494: Is the main connecting point in the airline's north–south international route network. In December 1992, South African Airways launched flights to Johannesburg via Cape Town using a Boeing 747. The company's codeshare agreement with American Airlines supported the route. The carrier later decided to codeshare with Delta Air Lines instead, which operated a hub in Atlanta. Consequently, South African replaced its Miami service with

1450-507: Is the main non-Oneworld international terminal. Concourse H is largely used by Delta and non-Oneworld international carriers that send narrowbody planes largely from Central and the northern parts of South America, and some widebody flights; and Concourse J is used by most non-Oneworld international carriers that send widebody planes and is the main terminal at MIA for non-Oneworld trans-continental flights. Concourse J also has one gate that can accommodate an A380. Miami International Airport uses

1508-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

1566-571: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

1624-622: The City of Miami established a Port Authority and raised bond revenue to purchase Pan American Field, which had been since renamed 36th Street Airport , from Pan Am. It merged with the former Miami Army Airfield , which was purchased from the United States Army Air Force south of the railroad in 1949 and expanded further in 1951 when the railroad line itself was moved south to make more room. United States Air Force Reserve troop carrier and rescue squadrons also operated from

1682-569: The MIA Mover , a free people mover system to transfer passengers between MIA terminals and the Miami Intermodal Center (MIC) that opened to the public on September 9, 2011. The MIC provides direct access from the airport to ground transportation (shuttle/bus/rail) as well as rental car companies. A Metrorail station opened at the MIC on July 28, 2012; a Tri-Rail station followed on April 5, 2015. Plans for Amtrak to operate

1740-555: The Tri-Rail commuter rail system. Metrorail operates the Orange Line train from Miami International Airport to destinations such as Downtown , Brickell , Health District , Coconut Grove , Coral Gables , Dadeland , Hialeah , South Miami , and Wynwood . It takes approximately 15 minutes to get from the airport to Downtown. Miami-Dade Transit operates an Airport Flyer bus that connects MIA directly to South Beach . MIA

1798-465: The 20th Street Terminal) opened. The 20th Street Terminal at the time the largest central airport terminal in the world, with five concourses (Concourses C-G) and a 270-room hotel. In 1961, the terminal was expanded with the addition of a sixth concourse (Concourse H) on the south side, which was the first concourse at the airport to include jetways. By 1965, the original five concourses were renovated with jetways added to them. The 20th Street Terminal

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1856-484: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Homestead Air Force Base Too Many Requests If you report this error to

1914-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

1972-470: The airport from 1949 through 1959, when the last unit relocated to nearby Homestead Air Force Base (now Homestead Air Reserve Base ). Pan Am and Eastern also constructed maintenance bases in Miami in the late 1940s, which made the airport the world's largest commercial aircraft maintenance and overhaul facility at the time. The old terminal on 36th Street was closed in 1959 when the current terminal (known as

2030-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

2088-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

2146-550: The cities of Miami and Miami Springs , and the village of Virginia Gardens . Nearby cities include Hialeah , Doral , and the Census-designated place of Fontainebleau . In 2021, Miami International Airport became the busiest international cargo airport in the U.S. and the busiest U.S. gateway for international passengers, surpassing John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City . As of 2021, it

2204-502: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

2262-404: The eastern end of the expanded Concourse D. Although the terminal was originally scheduled to be completed in 2004, numerous delays arose in the construction process, and Miami-Dade County took over control of the project in 2005, at which time the project had a budget of $ 2.85 billion. The terminal was ultimately completed in 2011 and included Skytrain , an automated people mover system, as well as

2320-934: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

2378-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

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2436-478: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

2494-597: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

2552-487: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

2610-506: The late 1970s and early 1980s, Air Florida had a hub at MIA, with a nonstop flight to London , England which it acquired from National upon the latter's merger with Pan Am. Air Florida ceased operations in 1982 after the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 . British Airways flew a Concorde SST (supersonic transport) triweekly between Miami and London via Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. , from 1984 to 1991. The terminal

2668-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

2726-420: The northeast corner of MIA, Eastern's maintenance base. Eastern remained one of the largest employers in the Miami metropolitan area until ongoing labor union unrest, coupled with the airline's acquisition by Texas Air in 1986, ultimately forced the airline into bankruptcy in 1989. Eastern operated out of Concourses B through D on the north side of the terminal, where American's Concourse D stands today. Concourse E

2784-418: The northwest corner of the airport, off of 36th Street. In addition to its large passenger terminal in Concourse D, American Airlines operates a maintenance base to the east of Concourse D, centered around a semicircular hangar originally used by National Airlines which can accommodate three widebody aircraft. IATA airport code The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it

2842-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

2900-506: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

2958-500: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

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3016-536: The summer of 1994, but returned to 24 daily departures in the summer of 1995 and never expanded further. United ended flights from Miami to South America, and shut down its Miami crew base, in May 2004, reallocating most Miami resources to its main hub in O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. United ceased all mainline service to Miami in 2005 with the introduction of its low-cost product Ted . Iberia also established

3074-515: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

3132-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

3190-587: Was expanded in the 1970s. Parking garages were added just east of the terminal and Concourse B opened on the north side of the terminal in 1973 to accommodate the expansion of Eastern Air Lines. In 1977, Concourse E's satellite terminal opened. The satellite was originally connected with shuttle buses, though a people mover was built to connect the satellite in 1980. Nonstop flights to Chicago and Newark started in late 1946, but nonstops didn't reach west beyond St. Louis and New Orleans until January 1962. Nonstop transatlantic flights to Europe began in 1970. In

3248-594: Was further expanded in the 1980s. The original Concourses D and E were rebuilt early in the decade and Concourses B and F were expanded. Pedestrian bridges with moving walkways were built in 1985 connecting the parking garages with the third level of the terminal. Within the next few years, the moving walkway system on the third level was expanded to run along the full length of the terminal. After former Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman became president of Eastern Air Lines in 1975, he moved Eastern's headquarters from Rockefeller Center in New York City to Building 16 in

3306-511: Was known as Miami City Airport . Pan American World Airways ("Pan Am") opened an expanded facility adjacent to City Airport, Pan American Field , in 1928. 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. Its runways were located around the threshold of today's Runway 26R. Eastern Air Lines began to serve Pan American Field in 1931, followed by National Airlines in 1936. National used

3364-577: Was the home for most international carriers, while Pan Am operated out of Concourses E and F. Amid Eastern's turmoil, American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall sought a new hub in order to utilize new aircraft which AA had on order. AA studies indicated that Delta Air Lines would provide strong competition on most routes from Eastern's hub at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta , but that MIA had many key routes only served by Eastern. American Airlines announced that it would establish

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