The airport has long enjoyed such a lofty status because of Miami's closeness to all of Florida's touristic attractions, the city's economic flourishment and its large Latin American and European population.
In the 1990's, some special and charter flights left Miami for Havana, Cuba. However, because of the United States embargo on that Caribbean nation, no flights are available between the two nearby cities.
In 2000, a private plane carrying Cuban immigrant Elian Gonzalez, 6 years old, and his father, departed this airport towards Maryland, where they later boarded a plane to Cuba.
The airport is a hub to American Airlines, cargo airline Fine Air and charter airline Miami Air[?] nowadays. In addition, it served as a hub to Eastern Airlines, Air Florida, the original National Airlines[?], and , from 1980 on, Pan Am. after Pan Am bought over National's routes.
Airline tragedies involving MIA include the 1972 crash of an Eastern Airlines L-1011[?] on the Everglades, which was the subject of Hollywood movie The Ghost Of Flight 411, the 1983 crash of an Air Florida Boeing 737 at the Potomac River in Washington DC (which was headed towards Miami), the 1996 crash of a Valujet[?] DC-9 that crashed in the everglades while attempting an emergency landing after taking off for Atlanta, and the 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde in Paris, which was heading to Miami to carry members of a cruise ship tour.
Airlines serving MIA include:
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump