With Engineering Savvy, Abreu Pilots Airport Plan

An immigrant success story, ex-Florida DOT engineer uses business and people skills to reform the massive Miami Airport program.

When Jose Abreu takes his regular walks through the terminals of Miami International Airport every week, he is the kind of aviation director who won’t hesitate to pick up a piece of litter himself and throw it away, his staffers say. He is the kind of hands-on director who responded to a customer complaint about the baggage claim area by forming a 20-member task force including the customer. New lighting, paint, information display monitors and other amenities resulted.

Miami International Airport Transportation engineer Abreu (left) mixes technical and business expertise in Miami.

“That’s the kind of director he is,” says Max Fajardo, project manager for the South Terminal expansion program. The approximately $1-billion job was completed 25% over its original budget and time schedule last year, despite materials and labor-cost increases. “I’ve been through seven directors, and I’ve gotten along with all of them...but Jose brought ideas outside of the airport realm. Those concepts have turned this place around.”

Abreu’s is a vibrant American success story. A lone 13-year-old Cuban refugee seeking asylum in the U.S., he stepped off an Eastern Airlines flight at MIA . Starting in the public works department and earning a civil engineering degree at the University of Miami, he rose through the ranks of the Florida Dept. of Transportation until former Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in 2003 named him state transportation secretary.

Multimedia  View Award of Excellence Luncheon and Acceptance Speech of José Abreu   April 3, 2008

Leadership in action

He joined the county aviation department in 2005. MIA was struggling with a $5.2-billion capital improvement program, now $6.2 billion. The troubled North Terminal Program, a $2.6-billion expansion around an existing terminal, was stalled. Abreu used his engineering experience and leadership savvy to set the wheels back in motion (ENR 4/2/07 p. 12). Last September, the county settled the last of a total of 335 contractor claims at one-third of the total $163 million originally sought.

“He brought credibility to the airport,” says Bill Stunkel, associate vice president for the Miami office of HNTB Corp., engineering consultant for the bond holders. He estimates Abreu has saved “nine figures” in costs a year.

Fajardo, now deputy director of op-erations and maintenance, notes that thanks to Abreu’s five-year, 20% cost reduction plan, MIA was able to avoid a projected $35 fee per enplaned passenger and instead charge only $17. As a result, Standard and Poors, like ENR a unit of the McGraw-Hill Cos., improved MIA’s financial outlook from negative to stable last year.

“I’m just lucky to be surrounded by good people,” says the engineer. “There’s a lot to do.” Things to do include opening gates incrementally at the north terminal until its final completion in 2011 and contracting with companies to train airport staff in customer service and other skills.

Abreu also emphasizes low-cost, high-impact maintenance and improvement of existing facilities, like carpeting, landscaping and expanding wireless Internet access. “You take care of safety first, then preservation, then expansion,” he explains. “It seemed we went to expansion at the detriment of preservation. We’re now doing the little things that make a difference.”

Also on the agenda are non-aeronautical revenue-generating ideas. “José [said] let’s start generating money from airport assets now,” says Miguel Southwell, assistant director of business development and retention. The airport has issued requests for proposals to develop parcels of land around the airport, a plan that is expected to generate about $70 million a year in revenue, he says.

Ben Watts, a former FDOT secretary, praises Abreu’s ability to lead and build in a politically charged environment. “Part of building consensus is understanding that you can’t please everybody,”he says. “He has the ability to analyze, make a decision and manage the unhappiness of some.”