Mayor Daniella Levine Cava would have to detail within 90 days how to handle the Herculean task of creating another major Miami-Dade airport under legislation a committee faces this week. That airport must handle cargo, commercial passengers and general aviation within the county’s system, according to Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera’s resolution. He cites rapid passenger and cargo growth at Miami International Airport and the opportunity to capitalize on even more growth as reasons to act now. Finding another airport is a long-term quest to relieve hemmed-in Miami International Airport. Hunts began in the 1960s for an elusive major airport site as both passenger and cargo growth kept pressuring capacity at the county’s major airport. The legislation, if it passes in the committee and the full commission, would give the mayor 90 days to solve the puzzle. Mr. Cabrera’s resolution notes that Miami International “is the leading economic engine for Miami-Dade County,” supporting thousands of jobs, and that passenger and cargo uses have mushroomed in the past several years. Last year, county figures show, Miami International had a record 52.3 million passengers. While incomplete, reports for this year will be millions higher. The airport carried the nation’s most international passengers last year, 23.2 million, among its 96 airlines. For Latin America alone, Miami International has more than 1,000 weekly departures to 80 destinations. On the cargo side, a pandemic boom pushed freight capacity to its limit as sea shipping cratered. As a result, the airport this year made a deal for a vast new cargo-handling facility. Last year the airport handled 2.76 million tons of freight, 59% import and export, and 81% of tonnage was international. The resolution asks the mayor to pinpoint where an airport could rise, “including but not limited to general aviation airports in the county’s airport system,” funding sources, the economic impact of a new airport, and “any potential impediments to the creation of such new airport.” The current county general aviation airports, which the mayor must examine in her hunt, are Miami-Opa-locka Executive, Miami Executive, Miami Homestead General Aviation, and Dade-Collier Training and Transition airports. While the county this year has been acquiring land around Miami Executive Airport in the Tamiami area, most county airports have limited available surrounding land in which to expand. For years mayors and commissioners looked to Homestead, where the Air Force had downsized operations, as a reliever airport site. However, the Air Force’s need for clear air space combined with the complexity of moving cargo in transit back and forth across the county to Miami International Airport swamped plans then. An intriguing site was the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which began in 1968 as the Everglades Jetport, planned as the world’s largest airport, covering 39 square miles with six runways. It would have been five times the size of JFK Airport in New York. But the Everglades Jetport’s Achilles’ Heel was its site in the heart of the Everglades, more than 30 miles from downtown Miami and with potential for massive environmental damage. The airport built one 10,500-foot-long runway, one of the world’s longest, that is still used for airline training flights. The commission also looked at it two years ago as an urban air mobility test site. Related Posts:Expressways sell land to speed Miami International…Three-level expansion will bolster MIA’s South TerminalSend Miami air cargo capacity soaring as fast as demandCounty needs to unveil answers to costly air cargo crunchMiami International Airport bonds save $117 millionThe post Miami-Dade legislation seeks way to add major new airport appeared first on Miami Today.