Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA, ICAO: KMIA, FAA LID: MIA), also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami 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,^[4] 8 miles (13 km) west-northwest of Downtown Miami, in metropolitan Miami,^[2] adjacent to 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. ^[5][6][7] and the busiest U.S. gateway for international passengers, surpassing John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.^[8][9] As of 2021, it 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.^[10] 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).^[2][11] It 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 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 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.^[12]

Following World War II in 1945, 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 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.^[13]

The old terminal on 36th Street was closed in 1959 when the "20th Street Terminal" opened, at the time the largest central airport terminal in the world, with five concourses and a 270-room hotel. This terminal was repeatedly renovated and expanded through the 1990s to create the modern MIA terminal complex.^[13]

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 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.^[14] 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.^[15]

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 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 union antagonist Frank Lorenzo in 1986, ultimately forced the airline into bankruptcy in 1989.^[14] Eastern operated out of Concourses B through D on the north side of the terminal, where American's Concourse D stands today.^[16][17] Concourse E was the home for most international carriers, while Pan Am operated out of Concourses E and F.^[16][18]

• On January 22, 1952, an Aerodex Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar on a test flight crashed after takeoff due to engine failure, all 5 occupants were killed.^[115]
• On August 4, 1952, a Curtiss C-46 Commando on a ferry flight crashed on approach to MIA because of the failure of the elevator control system, all 4 occupants died.^[116]
• On March 25, 1958, Braniff International Airways Flight 971, a Douglas DC-7 crashed 5 km WNW of MIA after attempting to return to the airport because of an engine fire crashing into an open marsh, 9 passengers out of 24 on board were killed.^[117]
• On October 2, 1959, a Vickers Viscount of Cubana de Aviación was hijacked on a flight from Havana to Antonio Maceo Airport, Santiago by three men demanding to be taken to the United States. The aircraft landed at Miami International Airport.^[118]
• On February 12, 1963, Northwest Airlines Flight 705, a Boeing 720, crashed into the Everglades while en route from Miami to Portland, Oregon, via Chicago O'Hare, Spokane, and Seattle. All 43 passengers and crew died.
• On February 13, 1965, an Aerolíneas de El Salvador (AESA) Curtiss C-46 Commando, a cargo flight, had an engine failure shortly after takeoff and crashed into an automobile junkyard, and both occupants died.^[119]
• On March 5, 1965, a Fruehaf Inc. Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar nosed down after takeoff due to elevator trim tab problems, and both occupants were killed.^[120]
• On June 23, 1969, a Dominicana de Aviación Aviation Traders Carvair, a modified DC-4, en route to Santo Domingo was circling back to Miami International Airport with an engine fire when it crashed into buildings 1 mile short of Runway 27. All 4 crewmembers aboard the Carvair and 6 on the ground were killed.^[121]
• On April 14, 1970, an Ecuatoriana de Aviacion Douglas DC-7, a cargo flight, crashed after takeoff from MIA beyond the runway and slid 890 feet before striking a concrete abutment, both occupants were killed.^[122]
• On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, a Lockheed L-1011, crashed into the Everglades. The plane had left JFK International Airport in New York City bound for Miami. There were 101 fatalities out of the 176 passengers and crew on board.^[123] (This incident is the subject of the movie The Ghost of Flight 401.)
• On June 21, 1973, a Warnaco Inc. Douglas DC-7, a cargo flight, crashed into the Everglades 6 minutes after takeoff in heavy rain, wind, and lightning. All three occupants died.^[124]
• On December 15, 1973, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation operated by Aircraft Pool Leasing Corp, a cargo flight, crashed 1.3 miles E of MIA because of overrotation of the aircraft causing a stall, crashing into a parking lot and several homes, all three occupants were killed, along with six on the ground.^[125]
• On September 27, 1975, a Canadair CL-44 operated by Aerotransportes Entre Rios (AER), crashed after takeoff because of an external makeshift flight control lock on the right elevator, 4 crew and 2 passengers of the 10 on board died.^[126]
• On January 15, 1977, a Douglas DC-3, registration N73KW of Air Sunshine crashed shortly after take-off on a domestic scheduled passenger flight to Key West International Airport, Florida. All 33 people on board survived.^[127]
• On January 6, 1990, a Grecoair Lockheed JetStar crashed after aborting takeoff and exiting the runway, One occupant of the two on board died.^[128]
• On May 11, 1996, ValuJet Airlines Flight 592, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashed into the Everglades 10 minutes after taking off from MIA while en route to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after a fire broke out in the cargo hold, killing 110 people.
• On August 7, 1997, Fine Air Flight 101 , a Douglas DC-8 cargo plane, crashed onto NW 72nd Avenue less than a mile (1.6 km) from the airport. All four occupants on board and one person on the ground were killed.
• On November 20, 2000, American Airlines Flight 1291, an Airbus A300 en route to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, returned to Miami following a cabin depressurization. During the evacuation one of the emergency exit doors explosively opened, killing a flight attendant.^[129]
• On September 15, 2015, Qatar Airways Flight 778 to Doha overran Runway 9 during takeoff and collided with the approach lights for Runway 27. The collision, which went unnoticed during the 13.5-hour flight, tore a 18-inch (46 cm) hole in the pressure vessel of the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft just behind the rear cargo door. The crew was confused by a printout from an onboard computer and erroneously began takeoff on Runway 9 at the intersection of Taxiway T1 rather than at the end of the runway, which trimmed roughly 1,370 m (4,490 ft) from the length of the runway available for takeoff.^[130][131]
• On June 21, 2022, RED Air Flight 203 departed from Las Américas International Airport in the Dominican Republic at 3:36 pm. The aircraft landed at Miami International Airport on runway 09 at 5:38 pm with their McDonnell Douglas MD-82. Once the aircraft landed, the left main landing gear collapsed, causing the MD-82 to skid off the runway before coming to a halt on the side of runway 09. The damage included the broken right main landing gear was broken, extreme damage to the nose, and a fire on the right wing. There were no reported casualties; three passengers were left with minor injuries.
• On January 18, 2024, Atlas Air Flight 095, a cargo Boeing 747-87UF, N859GT en route to San Juan, experienced an engine fire shortly after takeoff from Miami International Airport. The plane safely returned to the airport and made an emergency landing within 15 minutes of takeoff.^[132]

• Transportation in South Florida
• List of the busiest airports in the United States
• List of tallest air traffic control towers in the United States