In a city with an economy built around tourism and service, Miami International Airport is an embarrassing black eye. Let's put it this way: If Will Smith's "Welcome to Miami" were actually about the way most visitors are welcomed to Miami -- through the airport -- it would be a painful 37-minute experimental piece combining the worst of death metal and musique concrète, with a bit of jarring techno and salsa mixed in, and featuring, uh, rapper M.I.A. attempting operatic vocals. So it's no surprise that yet another survey has ranked MIA one of the worst airports in America.
Following a dismal showing on a similar list from the Daily Beast and a suvery that showed MIA was one of the last airports in the world that travelers wanted to be stranded at, Zagat Survey claims MIA is the second-worst airport in the nation.
Zagat asked consumers to rank the 30 largest airports in the country based on quality on a scale of 1 to 30. MIA received a 7.77. That makes it the second-worst in America, only behind New York's LaGuardia. Yes, the red-eyes between Miami and NYC really are hellish.
The score is up slightly from last year, when MIA got a 6.85, but is down from 2007 when it received an 8.28 (which still made it the second-worst).