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Frequent Miami International Airport (MIA) travelers are familiar with Gate D60.
At the far western end of Concourse D lies the home of many American Eagle flights, a grim space with one seating area serving 17 ground-level regional jet parking positions. It is MIA’s equivalent to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)’s much-despised former Gate 35X that closed in 2021.
That will change in 2030 when a new $1 billion, three-level extension of Concourse D is scheduled to open, replacing the currently cramped Gate D60. The expansion will house 17 gates, all with passenger boarding bridges connected directly to the concourse, and a new international arrivals corridor on the third level.
“The brand-new, reimagined D60 is a transformational project that will provide a much-improved experience for our customers and our team,” Robert Isom, CEO of American Airlines, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This investment — alongside new premium lounges and new routes — reflects our shared commitment with Miami-Dade County and the airport to ensure Miami remains the preeminent U.S. gateway to Latin America.”
American, which exclusively uses Gate D60 today, will use the new expansion when it is complete.
Initial renderings show a light-filled space with a metal lattice shading the inside from the South Florida sun. At the extension’s center is a rotunda with a rooftop clerestory that brings natural light into a new interior garden below.
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The look and feel give the space a much-needed upgrade over the rest of the hulking, value-engineered Concourse D. A “franken-project,” it went through many iterations — and managers — from its conception by American under the airline’s legendary former CEO and Chairman Robert Crandall in 1995 until it was finally complete nearly two decades later in 2014.
For American, though, the layout of Concourse D greatly improved operations by replacing four finger concourses with one linear facility.
The Gate D60 extension will be led by MIA as part of a larger $9 billion airport improvement program. Other aspects include the demolition and replacement of concourses F and G and upgrades to many airport amenities.
Construction on the Gate D60 expansion is scheduled to begin in 2027.
