Are direct flights to Japan close? Trade group from Miami-Dade returns with answers

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South Florida travelers shouldn’t expect direct flights from Japan anytime soon, however, they may get help with a new incinerator the county wants to build to handle waste.

That’s the take-home message from a 10-day trip to Japan co-led by Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava that concluded this week.

Levine Cava and the delegation, which returned to Miami International Airport on Wednesday evening, had several meetings focused on transportation and infrastructure, the Miami Herald reported last month. The goal: to spur greater trade and investment between Japan and South Florida.

One of the priorities is to meet with Japan Airlines and continue to promote direct flights between the world’s third-largest economy and South Florida. Mayor Levine Cava; Ralph Cutie, director and CEO of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department; and Alfred Sanchez, president of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, met with JAL executives on Nov. 30.

However, what they have heard is that it appears that such a service appears to be at least a year away, based on one-on-one interviews with them after the trip.

JAL officials told the Miami-Dade delegation that they had yet to recover from the pandemic and were focused on resuming existing international routes and improving the company’s financial performance.

“They made it clear that they had suffered economic losses,” Levine Cava said, and that “their first job until the end of 2024 is to repair those roads. “

Said Cutie: “They are still recovering economically from COVID, and they made that clear.”

Does this mean that expansion to Miami or Greater Florida will likely have to wait until 2025?

At the same time, Levine Cava and Cutie argued that prioritizing new service to Miami could give JAL more advantages than resuming some of the airline’s older routes, especially given immigration adjustments in the United States. United since the pandemic and South Florida’s new charm for the airline. monetary and generation sectors.

“We said, ‘Maybe you should ask yourself if some of those [old] addresses might not be as successful as our new address because of conversion patterns,'” the mayor said.

Cutie many numbers, adding up to the record volume of passengers at Miami International Airport. Levine Cava said: “Ralph did a wonderful job of presenting very compelling insights into why it made sense for Japan Airlines to fly direct. “

JAL is serious, he believes. “Our direct address would possibly be better for you than one of your previous addresses,” Cutie said, summarizing the case brought through him and Levine Cava.

Sánchez also came out optimistic. He said JAL is waiting for at least three new planes they have ordered and is looking to have two or three fit to fly between Tokyo and Florida before agreeing to start the new flight. “I’d probably be surprised if we didn’t have a direct flight. “

The question is, when?

Although no known industrial agreements were finalized during this trip, several spaces showed promise and some discussions are advancing that may generate economic benefits for the region in the coming years.

, Japan is Florida’s largest importer of goods, totaling $9 billion in 2022. Automotive and aerospace are key sectors.

Japan also exports to South Florida. Hitachi Rail has provided several rail cars to Miami-Dade Transit’s Metrorail system. The parent company of Brightline, the yellow activity that runs from Miami to Orlando, SoftBank until earlier this year.

The newest industry builds on previous visits from other Florida political leaders.

In April, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis led an industrial project in Japan, where he met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and various business leaders, as well as executives from All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines. In October, the state hosted a meeting led through tourism developer SelectFlorida and Secretary of State Cord Byrd.

Levine Cava co-led the organization with Oliver Gilbert III, president of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and county commission. According to the camera, another 50 people came from Miami. All companies paid their own contribution, according to Sanchez.

Also in attendance were County Commissioners Marleine Bastien, Juan Carlos Bermudez and Kevin Marino Cabrera.

The organization spent 8 nights at the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo and two nights, Friday and Saturday. at the Hyatt Regency in Kyoto, according to a copy of the organization’s itinerary received via the Miami Herald through a public records request. They departed Miami International Airport in the early hours of Nov. 25 for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where they boarded a nonstop flight to Tokyo. They flew back to Los Angeles International Airport. They flew with American Airlines until the end.

Three collaborators accompanied Levine Cava: Johanna Cervone, chief of staff; Francesca de Quesada Covey, Director of Economic Progress and Innovation; and Maria Dreyfus-Ulvert, Miami-Dade County Commerce Specialist, according to an email from Natalia Jaramillo, the mayor’s deputy communications director. Levine Cava said he didn’t take his sergeant-at-arms for protection reasons.

The trip for the mayor and her three aides cost taxpayers slightly over $32,000.

Breaking that down, Levine Cava and her chief of staff Cervone’s travels cost a combined a total of $17,884.11 and came from the office of the mayor, wrote Jaramillo. Covey and Dreyfus-Ulvert cost a combined $14,325.24 and was from the economic development’s budget.

The Herald also requested the cost of any gifts taken or received through an open records request. Jaramillo responded that “these expenses will be shared as soon as the delegation submits their gift disclosures.”

The Herald made a records request for the office of the four county commissioners.

In addition to the airline executives, the group also visited the Sakura Environmental Center and the Suginami Incineration Plant, both cutting edge waste management facilities.

“We deepened our knowledge of best practices of waste management,” said Levine Cava.

Hitachi is the Japanese company that constructed that incinerator, and it is already in the mix of companies competing to replace the county’s waste facility in Doral that caught fire earlier this year and was subsequently closed, said the mayor.

The county will now award a contract to a representative to represent it through the next stages of bidder selection.

It is too soon to handicap Hitachi’s chances, the mayor said. They would bring valuable Japanese experience but likely have to partner with a U.S. company, she noted. Also, a site still has to be chosen.

The organization also visited the Port of Yokohama, where the mayor signed an agreement to identify a formal framework for collaboration in spaces such as port development, infrastructure, port security and environmental initiatives.

The delegation also promoted Miami as a growing tech hub. It sought to sell the city as a place Japanese companies could use as a foothold to enter the U.S. market as well as grow their businesses for the Latin America and Caribbean markets.

“Our purpose is to make it clear that they needed to have a greater presence in our market,” Levine Cava said. “And not just from a corporate perspective, but also from an investor perspective. “

They met with Sompo, Japan’s second largest property insurance company. The firm already said it would open an office in Miami next June. While it is not yet active in the region’s home insurance market, it is a large provider of crop insurance to farmers in the U.S.

Sanchez of the Greater Miami Chamber said Sompo shared an idea, developing a private-public partnership for property insurance, that could help reduce the risk of home insurance. While it was a preliminary discussion, “what struck me is their creativity,” he said.

Meanwhile, the mayor thinks Sompo may be part of the housing solution in South Florida.

“They have a lot of capital to invest,” he said, and “maybe they’ll just invest in the housing market, in housing for workers. “

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