Already more than $2 billion over budget and more than three years behind schedule, Miami International Airport's north terminal is about to suck more money from Miami-Dade County.
This Friday, aviation department bureaucrats will ask the county commission's airport and seaport committee to sign off on adding $46 million to a $153 million contract with Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. to install a baggage handling system for the north terminal.
A county manager's memo explaining why the deal ballooned from $100 million to $200 million in just three years says Siemens fell behind schedule, and American Airlines officials believed the design would cause delays in getting luggage to its passengers.
Expect the commitee - and then the full commission - to sign off on the latest hornswaggle from American, which has basically been in charge of the North Terminal for nearly two decades. And that means passengers will have to pay
more to travel out of MIA.
The money to cover the aiport construction
is derived from landing fees charged to the airlines, which pass the
cost on to their customers.
