How close are direct flights to Japan?Miami-Dade Industrial Organization Returns with Answers

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

That’s the takeaway 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 promoting 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 Sánchez, president of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, met with JAL leaders on November 30.

What they heard, though is that such service appears to be at least one year away, based on individual interviews with each of 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 was to repair those roads. “

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

Does that mean 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 did say: ‘You might want to consider whether some of those [older]routes might not be as successful as our new route because of changing patterns,’ ” said the mayor.

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 seriously considering it, she believes. “Our direct route may be better for you than one of your older routes,” said Cutie, summarizing the case he and Levine Cava made.

Sánchez also came out optimistic. He said JAL expects at least three new planes they have ordered and that they need 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 I didn’t get a direct flight. “

The question is, when?

Even as no known business deals were finalized on this trip, several areas showed promise, and some discussions are advancing that may lead to economic benefits for the region in the coming years.

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

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

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

In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis led a trade mission to Japan where he met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and a variety of business leaders, including executives with All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines. In October, the state organized a trip with tourism promoter SelectFlorida and Secretary of State Cord Byrd leading the way.

Levine Cava co-led the group with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and County Commission Chairman Oliver Gilbert III. According to the chamber, 50 people traveled from Miami. All companies paid their own way, according to Sanchez.

Also traveling 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 by the Miami Herald through a public records request. They left Miami International Airport in the early hours of November 25 for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where they boarded a nonstop flight to Tokyo. They returned to Los Angeles International Airport. They flew with American Airlines until the end.

Levine Cava accompanied by 3 collaborators: Johanna Cervone, staff leader; Francesca de Quesada Covey, Director of Economic Development 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 bring his sergeant-at-arms for security reasons.

Through the mayor and her three employees, they charge taxpayers just over $32,000.

Breaking that down, trips through Levine Cava and his Cervone leader charge a total of $17,884. 11 and come from the mayor’s office, Jaramillo wrote. Covey and Dreyfus-Ulvert charge a total of $14,325. 24 and come from the economic growth 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’s executives, the organization also visited the Sakura Environmental Center and the Suginami Incinerator Plant, two waste control facilities.

“We’ve deepened our wisdom about waste control practices,” Levine Cava said.

Hitachi is the Japanese company that built this incinerator and is already part of an organization of companies competing to upgrade Doral County’s waste treatment facilities that were stuck earlier this year and subsequently closed, the mayor said.

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

It’s too early to hamper Hitachi’s chances, the mayor said. They would bring valuable Japanese experience, though they would most likely have to partner with a U. S. company, he said. You still have to go somewhere.

The group also visited the Port of Yokohama, where the mayor signed an agreement to establish a formal framework for collaboration in areas including 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: creating a public-private partnership for asset insurance, which could help reduce the risk of home insurance. Although it was an initial discussion, “what caught my attention was their creativity,” he said.

Meanwhile, the mayor believes Sompo may be just one component of South Florida’s housing solution.

“They have a lot of capital to invest,” she noted, and “they might invest in the housing market, in affordable workforce housing.”

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