airways interview LESTER SOLA INTERVIEW Chris Sloan PHOTOS Author unless noted DIRECTOR AND CEO OF THE MIAMI-DADE AVIATION DEPARTMENT

Airways: You’re not new to Can you illustrate in numbers At this critical Miami International Airport, but the impact this has had on MIA’s time when air you’re fairly new to this post. traffic and passenger counts? travel is largely You’re sure running the Miami- At the point right before Dade Aviation Department and COVID-19, we were almost in a at a standstill, MIA in interesting times. 50/50 split between domestic the aviation Lester Sola: At this critical and international. director and time when air travel is largely at a standstill, the head of On our peak days, right around chief executive air operations at the usually the Thanksgiving holiday, we officer at Miami bustling Miami International were seeing around 125,000 International Airport has much to say. We passengers every single day. Airport has much were doing very well. I’ve been Our average was around 110,000 the director since February of to 115,000 passengers per day, to say. 2018. 2018 was a record year. depending on the season. At one 2019 was a record year. And, point during the Super Bowl, we every year, we’re doing a million set a record and ended up hitting more passengers. Then, all of a close to 140,000 passengers in a sudden, we start hearing about single day. COVID-19 in January, then February and March. At one So, the worst day during the point, we didn’t know whether COVID-19 pandemic crisis, it was going to be a 10% drop has been so far around 3,500 or 50% drop. The last thing passengers. The average was we expected was that we were around 5,000 passengers every going to be 95% off of passenger day. During an average year, we volumes. have close to almost a thousand operations on a daily basis. Now And it’s not just here; it’s the we’re doing about 100 passenger entire global network. I don’t flights a day. think anyone would have ever envisioned that this was going What does the story look like for to take place. cargo operations?

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With the reduction of passenger we knew that we needed to do flights, our cargo operations something and do it quickly. We for April went up by 5%. So far, were very aggressive in offering in May, our cargo-only flights relief to the airlines. are basically up 25%. So, rather than cargo going into bellies of We’re deferring, basically, rent passenger aircraft, they’re just on hangars, terminal spaces, etc., adding those additional cargo- for a three-month timeframe, with only flights. an option to extend it to another three months if we mutually agree. How is MIA benefiting from the The FAA only allows for deferral. CARES Act, and how does that Airlines still have to pay landing affect keeping employees on fees and other fees, however. the payroll versus furloughing them? Due to the financial health of We’re scheduled to receive the airport, we can give them as US$207 million under the much flexibility as possible and CARES Act. It requires us to have a really good repayment keep 90% of our workforce. program that allows them to We have no intentions at this pay us back without it being a time to initiate any furloughs burden on their operations. at least through the end of this year. We’ll have to see how the The payback period can be up industry recovers and what to, basically, your fiscal year. So, it translates into in relation after the fiscal year, then you have to the right-sized workforce to charge some interest rates, for a particular volume of air but we may give them a payback traffic through this airport. The CARES act allows us period of six months up to a year. We’ve taken significant steps to to leverage those dollars and We’re willing to work with the reduce costs. We’ve frozen all potentially do capital projects. airlines to figure out: what we the vacant positions and we’re Now that the volume of traffic have to do in order to help them taking steps to reduce the cost is down, we can do things on stay afloat and be able to continue of operating. the airside that may have had a to operate at the airport. significant impact on operations The airport also had basically if we were still operating at For concessionaires, we took a unencumbered, unrestricted about 120,000 passengers a day similar three-month program with reserves of close to US$300 and almost a thousand flights. another option for three months. million. So the financial position So it could be up to six months. of the airport was one that was What kind of things is the So, if you’re a concessionaire, very, very healthy. And, even airport doing to mitigate regardless of what your deal was, if we didn’t have the CARES the damage to its airline you’re not paying any rent. You’re Act, we still had a plan that we partners, vendors, tenants, and only paying us whatever the were going be able to survive concessionaires, such as fee and percentage of the profit-sharing through the end of the year at rent deferrals? was. A lot of the contracts have a the exact same burn rate we In the first week, when we saw 7% or 10% participation. If you have are at now. the drop of 10% in passengers, multiple restaurants or stores and www.airwaysmag.com JULY / AUGUST 2020 | AIRWAYS | 49 1

there’s no traffic to support that With traffic down so a certain amount of protocol kind of activity, we’re allowing significantly, have you closed that was already established you to close them and we’re not down any concourses and by the CDC and screening. going to default you. Right now, terminals completely? [Florida Governor Ron DeSantis] we have 30 concessions open out Central Terminal operations are also established a protocol for of around 200. mostly shut down. The only things people coming from the Tri- that are really operating, for the State area in the Northeast, Do you see any advantages most part, are the North Terminal [New York, New Jersey, and and opportunities for for American Airlines (Concourse Connecticut]—basically, giving MIA on the other side of D), with the rest of the airlines in them information at the gate and the COVID-19 recovery, the South Terminal (Concourses asking them to self-quarantine. particularly if airlines H and J). We’re operating limited retrench to their hubs and security checkpoints. When we first saw what the non-stop city-pairs decline, concern was, we actually tasked such as flights to South Concourse E and some our janitorial crews and added America that bypass MIA? hardstands have close to 50 significant support and more The issue for us is, how do we planes parked on them. While manpower into cleaning and maintain that resiliency and operators are cycling them to also disinfecting touch points have a place where people 1 American keep them going, the hope is to throughout the airport. Whether want to fly to? A lot of South Airlines is MIA’s still have a significant amount of it be elevators, handrails, door dominant carrier Americans see their culture and sole occupant their fleets here. So, as demand handles, you name it. And then and their language here, so it’s of its North increases, they can go ahead and we went on to disinfecting areas Concourse Terminal easy for them to travel to. And D. With American’s start flying directly from here. overnight. All the TSA checkpoints Miami has name-recognition complete pulldown are getting disinfected. of its Latin American and What steps is the airport We’ll see how the airline European franchise, taking with respect to hygiene, You have to be able to show industry evolves and how airlines the concourse cleanliness, and mitigating the the flying public that you are was nearly empty and airports are able to structure when it was effect of the virus? taking steps to maintain a clean their networks to generate as photographed on So, if you were flying in from terminal, because everything is Monday June 1, much revenue as possible. 2020. Asia or from Europe, there was going to be based on confidence.

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How are you addressing social anything else—were they close to security, the well-being of distancing? to the transmission or in close the flying public is going to We and our partner airlines are proximity to people—I think that be just as important for the installing plexiglas dividers on we, as an industry, whether it be industry to recover. the ticket counters, information the airport or the airlines, are booths, and at gate areas. going to have to adapt to how So, for us, it’s how we we’re going to fly people, how reengineer the flow of our We’re basically laying out the we are going to manage the flow passengers through the airport, floor plan so that people have of individuals. such as the queuing areas of guidance points and signage for our holding rooms. All of that social distancing measures. You’ll So, 9/11 brought in significant is probably going to have to be see markings to make sure that security protocols, taking it to a reevaluated to determine how you keep your social distance. new, different level. And then we we ensure social distance in the So that’s going to reduce our 2 American immediately saw the long lines. near term as well as in the long capacity, at least in the short Airlines has People were complaining, and term, which may reduce the installed plexiglass term, as to how many people can partitions at its the industry, airports, and the capacity of the airport. flow through the airport. But, ticket counters and federal government all had to again, it provides people visual boarding gates to mitigate the adapt to figure out how we were We are going to have to ramp up information, guidance for how possible spread of going to create an experience. on the CIP [Capital Improvement you want them to operate and COVID-19. So we started adding more Plan] to create more capacity. Not move throughout your airport. 3 As of June 1, checkpoints. Ultimately, the necessarily because the volume 2020, only four TSA federal government came up of passengers is going up, but checkpoints were How do you see the airport open in the entire with TSA Pre and Global Entry. because the space, the square experience and operations Miami International So there were things that were footage per passenger, needs to changing in the long-term, while Airport Terminal with the done to vet some individuals be increased in order to be able to we learn to live with COVID-19, Central Terminal’s and allow for improvement of provide that initial capacity. vaccine or not? gates and the flow of our passengers. departures hall Now that the flying public operations nearly I don’t think our guards are is aware that they can be shuttered. The TSA With this situation, we’re going to be let down anytime checkpoints are infected, whether it be a flu or frequently cleaned. going to learn that, in addition soon. www.airwaysmag.com JULY / AUGUST 2020 | AIRWAYS | 51 / airways interview /

How do you see serology, temperature checks, and so-called immunity passports figure into the screening process? The problem with temperature checks is that it’s really a false sense of security. The person may be asymptomatic, right? There are too many opportunities for getting it wrong, just based on the temperature. So we’ll see how it evolves.

But I think that, if it continues at this pace, you’re probably going to have to have some type of a true test that will tell you whether you have the virus.

What are you doing to protect your employees, and mitigate their chances of infection? Out of our 1,200 county airport employees, we have a third of them working from home. For those that have to be at the airport, due to the fact that there’s not that much demand, we’re doing rotational schedules. So our people are coming to 4 work maybe twice a week. We’re trying to give people more time and flexibility. For myself, I’ll be at the airport twice a week and, the rest of the time, I work from home, although I do come in when the and grow the capacity of the terminal situation demands it. even further to take us above 55 million This airport has passengers a year. In regard to the target-area ages that been very resilient we have concerns with, we’ve sent those and we are not just Last year, we did 46 million passengers. people home and, if they can’t work from The year before that, we did 45 million. So home, we’ll actually just have them wait in a geographic we were growing on a million passengers from home until we figure out how we’re location that a year. We thought, “Oh, we’re going to going to handle that. So we don’t want to makes us a eventually run out of capacity. Let’s start expose anyone needlessly. stronghold. At the building now doing this CIP”. We’ve also given masks to our community level It expanded capacity and updated employees. We’re basically purchasing and culturally, I the Central Terminal—which is the and issuing as many of these PPEs as most dated portion of the airport—and quickly as we can. think that we’re the airside operations to handle 70-80 very open, and million passengers in the terminal. Next How does COVID-19 affect MIA’s growth, people feel was building a new hotel, replacing the particularly the announced Capital original, which had been built in 1959, and Improvement Plan? comfortable adding other amenities as well. One of the things that we had rolled out, here, especially just in June of last year, was a new US$5- those from South With this COVID-19, we have to see billion CIP that was approved by the Board how many years of capacity that buys us, of County Commissioners and the airlines America and the depending on how quickly the airlines are to, basically, improve infrastructure Caribbean. able to get up and running again.

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where we will allow developers to build out the project and we’ll give them a payback period of an X-number of years for them to basically pay back.

What do you think are the prospects for demand recovery and for the airport experience going forward? There’s always going to be demand for the aviation industry. The issue really for us is, how do we manage, as an industry, the time period of going through a terminal? Oftentimes, we tell people to be at the airport two hours before, if they’re going international, or 90 minutes if it’s domestic. And ultimately, whether it’s a two-hour flight or wherever you’re going, it’s a limited amount of time compared to your journey. I am very confident that, as an industry, whether it be the airport or the airlines, we can mitigate some those concerns and raise awareness of what we are all doing to keep people 5 safe when they’re choosing to fly.

This airport has been very resilient and we are not just in a geographic location that makes us a stronghold. At So, we don’t have to move on some the community level and culturally, I of these capital projects until we really think that we’re very open, and people need to. When you start seeing your feel comfortable here, especially those volumes increase again, then, if you from South America and the Caribbean. can forecast quickly enough, you can They feel comfortable choosing MIA. So jumpstart the CIP again. We can’t build I think that those routes will come back when the demand isn’t there, because and they’ll be a significant component of then you increase the debt service and an airline’s profitability structure. the cost of operations, so it’s a delicate balance. We bring in our airline partners The PortMiami is the busiest cruise ship into these decisions. port in the world. Passengers heading off on a cruise are such a major part We are moving on projects that of MIA’s traffic. What happens if that are capable of improving efficiencies doesn’t come back? immediately for the airlines that are Our sister port, The PortMiami, has 60% here. So, on the airside, we’re moving to 70% of its revenues generated by the on those projects at the same pace that cruise business. The other is cargo. So, we were originally; as far as the terminal 4 With air travel down by 90%, only 30 out if it’s that much revenue to our partner of approximately 200 concessions were open is concerned, we’re probably going to at MIA. Of those, food service was limited to port, it is of significant concern for us wait. We are going to move on the hotel “grab and go”. if that industry does not come back. It’s because, in all likelihood, it will be a a significant portion of our revenue, not 5 The sparse Flight Information Display development deal. And cargo operations, Screens (FIDS) photographed in May 2020, just to the airport but also to the airline those will move as well, because they starkly illustrate the sharply reduced industry, that we fly a lot of people into passenger flight operations at MIA in the are, for the most part, development deals COVID-19 era. MIA to jump on cruises. www.airwaysmag.com JULY / AUGUST 2020 | AIRWAYS | 53