American To Pay $105 Million To Mia Airport

FWAAA

Veteran
Jan 5, 2003
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Let's hope someone loses their job over this debacle.

What a screwup. I suspect the truth is that MIA is responsible for much more of the problems, but this allows AA to wash its hands of project management.

AA fleeing Miami airport project

Airline, Dallas contractors leave expansion half-finished, 'in severe crisis'


By Margaret Allen
Dallas Business Journal
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET Aug. 14, 2005

Two big Dallas-based general contractors are out millions of dollars, and Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. has agreed to pay $105 million, in connection with what some are calling the bungled expansion of Miami International Airport.

Dade County, Fla., officials have said the massive, 3 million-square-foot expansion of the airport's north terminal is "in severe crisis."

Construction started in 1998 and was set for completion this year, but instead is only half finished. The cost of the mile-long, $900 million project has escalated to an estimated $1.94 billion, and scores of subcontractors claim they haven't been paid for completed work.

American, which currently operates about 62% of the flights out of Miami, was allowed by Miami-Dade County in 1995 to provide construction oversight of the project. But 10 years after the agreement was signed, Miami-Dade County commissioners in late June voted to allow American to hand the project back to the county.

American has agreed to pay the county $105 million over the next 10 years in what county officials have styled a contribution to pay subcontractors for outstanding claims.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8956546/
 
FWAAA said:
Let's hope someone loses their job over this debacle.

What a screwup.  I suspect the truth is that MIA is responsible for much more of the problems, but this allows AA to wash its hands of project management.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8956546/
[post="288438"][/post]​

MIA reponsible for most the problems? Ha.

The South Terminal project, ran by MIA with no AA involvement, is on time and on budget. Opens in April. Beautiful terminal too. Designed by Arquitectonica.

AA screwed this up bad, but luckily for them, got the media to put the blame on MIA management.

I'm not saying MIA management is perfect, far from it. What I am saying is that, as the South Terminal project shows, they are perfectly capable of doing things right. The only difference between construction of the two projects was who managed them. MIA managed the South, AA managed the North. Hopefully MIA will get things straightend out, but AA screwed up this project big time.
 
MAH4546 said:
The only difference between construction of the two projects was who managed them.
[post="288440"][/post]​

I think there's also a tiny matter of scale.... isn't South about a quarter of the size? There's also the complexity of trying to build around the existing facilities as opposed to new construction on an empty footprint...

It's not like AA can't manage a project -- JFK construction was also managed by AA, and was more or less ahead of schedule (opening for service is another story altogether, since AA purposely slowed down finishing out the terminal to preserve cashflow).

There's probably enough blame to go around on both sides with both AA and MDAD. I did notice that there were two or three jobs L5 and L6 jobs posted in CRE over the past month -- don't know if that's just a coincidence or there really was someone held accountable....