MIA cargo is sky-high as World Trade Month begins

After racking up big numbers during its second-consecutive record-breaking year in freight traffic, Miami International Airport is well on its way to a three-peat in 2022 as it kicks off World Trade Month.

In the first quarter of 2022, MIA’s total freight volume increased by eight percent year over year to 687,675 tons, with 552,371 tons coming from international traffic. International freight at MIA has grown 5.4 percent year to date, while domestic freight is up 20.5 percent.

MIA’s strong first quarter comes on the heels of the airport’s best year ever in several trade categories. In 2021, MIA set a new annual record of 2.7 million tons of total freight and two million metric tons of international freight handled, to strengthen the global gateway’s position as the busiest airport in the U.S. and ninth in the world for international freight. MIA’s imports and exports also had a combined commercial value of $67.5 billion last year, up 28 percent over 2020 for a record increase of $14.8 billion. MIA’s 2021 air trade amounted to 95 percent of Florida’s total air trade value and 41 percent of the state’s total air and sea trade values combined.

The airport’s leading import in weight last year continued to be flowers, at 327,881 tons valued at nearly $1.6 billion, which represents a 39-percent increase in weight and a 34-percent in value. Flower imports are currently in full bloom at MIA, with the Association of Floral Importers of Florida projecting a 10-percent year-over-year increase in flower shipments before Mother’s Day on May 8 and MIA handling 89 percent of all flower imports to the U.S. by air.

MIA’s largest import category in value was gold, jewelry, and gems, at $4.4 billion in 2021, which was up nine percent year over year. The largest export commodity in weight from MIA was vehicle parts and tires, which doubled in size from 18,703 tons in 2020 to 37,607 tons last year, while the leading export in value was aviation/spacecraft parts at $6.5 billion, for an increase of two percent over the previous year.