MIA vs FLL vs PBI, which should you choose?

MIA vs FLL vs PBI, which is better to use?

By: @NonStopsAviation

Do not get this confused with this topic, that one mainly focused on airport statistics like giving a brief rundown on the airport and showing the top destinations.

This guide is instead focused on a traveler’s perspective wanting to vacation in the area and is torn on which airport to use. The airports in this comparison will be,

  • Miami International Airport (MIA)

  • Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL)

  • Palm Beach International Airport (PBI)

They will go against each other in following categories:

  • Closest to the city it serves

  • Airlines variety

  • Accessibility

  • Price to fly into

  • Ease

The 1st place winner of a category will get 2 points, 2nd place 1 and 3rd 0.

This guide will not just include my opinions, I’ll have a section about the things fellow residents of the Miami area have said. Without further to do, let’s get started!


Category 1: Distance from City

How far is the airport from the city and how long will it take to get there?


We will start from the busiest to least busiest, Miami International Airport is situated around 8 miles west of Downtown Miami by the neighborhoods of Doral, Fontainebleau and the city of Hialeah. The quickest route will take 15 minutes from downtown to the airport without traffic, going along Flagler St, The Dolphin Expressway (FL-836) and Le Jeune Road (FL-953) before reaching MIA.

NOTE: FL-836 (Dolphin Expressway) is TOLLED and is fully cashless, motorists will pay either using the Florida SunPass or Toll By Plate

Another possibility taking 2 minutes longer will have you go on I-95 heading north towards the appropriately called Airport Expressway (FL-112) which is once again tolled similarly to the FL-836.

To avoid tolls completely, you can simply keep going on Flager until you reach Le Jeune.

Moving onto Fort Lauderdale, FLL is situated 3 miles south of the city itself and 21 miles north of Miami immediately adjacent to the city of Dania Beach and in close proximity to Hollywood hence why it’s called Fort Lauderdale-HOLLYWOOD. A lifesaver compared to MIA this time around is that the quickest route is 11 minutes and is NOT tolled, just simply take US-1 (Federal Highway) till they reach the airport. For a bonus, the airport is EXTREMELY close to Port Everglades with shuttles running between the 2.

Finally we have Palm Beach, PBI is 4 miles south of West Palm Beach making it the closest of the 3 to the cities they serve. The ride to the airport is a mere 7 minutes taking Australian Ave until Belvedere Rd and like FLL, this route isn’t tolled.


The clear winner for the 1st category goes to Palm Beach (PBI) for being the closest and having the quickest route between the airport and downtown and a bonus for letting you avoid the infamous I-95, Fort Lauderdale (FLL) comes in 2nd for providing another straight forward route avoid 95 again but is a bit further. Miami (MIA) is the clear loser here, furthest away, quickest route is tolled and avoiding tolls will have you sitting in traffic for a while and if it’s rush hour, it can take some time.

Score:

MIA FLL PBI
0 1 2

Category 2: Airline variety

Which airport has the biggest variety of airline to choose from?


With Miami being the primary city in the metro area, it is no surprise that MIA has the most airlines having the basic US legacy carriers, a few low cost carriers to majority of Latin American Airlines like Avianca, LATAM, Aerolíneas Argentinas and Copa thanks to the cities large Latin/Hispanic influence, the major European ones like British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, Iberia, ITA etc… and even 3 Middle Eastern airlines, EL AL, Qatar and Emirates.

One thing to know for sure is that MIA is DOMINATED by American Airlines who uses the airport as their main gateway to Latin American and the Caribbean providing nonstop service to ALL except 3 Latin/Hispanic countries. If your flying American, you’ll most likely end up here and I say it is recommended since most flights arrive in the morning to allow connections.

Fort Lauderdale is usually the airport favored for low cost airlines when serving the area, in fact airlines like JetBlue, Southwest and Spirit strictly used FLL but over time have grown into MIA but still try to keep majority of their operations here. It’s once again served by most US airlines and a few foreign ones like Avianca, Copa, Caribbean, Air Canada. WestJet, Flair, Bermudair and 2 interesting ones, Azul and EL AL.

While AA dominates MIA, Spirit owns FLL with this being their main hub and their headquarters being situated close by in Dania Beach. JetBlue is also well established in FLL also having a decently sized operation here but nothing compared to Spirit’s. Either way if your flying JetBlue or Spirit, this will most likely be the airport you end up in.

West Palm Beach being the smallest of the 3 cities will unfortunately have the most lackluster airline availability with the only foreign carriers being Air Canada, Porter and Bahamasair with the former 2 being seasonal. No airline has a hub or focus city here but JetBlue does have a decent route network from here so you could fly them here but your better off going to FLL instead.


Miami (MIA) is getting back into the game being the winner here, Fort Lauderdale (FLL) is in 2nd and Palm Beach (PBI) in dead last.

Score:

MIA FLL PBI
2 2 2

Category 3: Accessibility

I didn’t rent a car, how will I get to and from the airport without paying a lot for Ubers?


The following modes of public transit can be used easily to get to and from the airports:

Country bus systems

Metrorail

Metromover

MIA Mover

Tri-Rail

Brightline

Miami despite having the furthest airport out of the 3, it does have the best connection with public transport, you simply need to walk to the Government Center station and wait for a Metrorail ORANGE line train, if it is green DO NOT board it the green line instead will take you Palmetto far away from MIA. Once on the train just enjoy the ride till you reach the airport station which is actually in the intermodal center where you can find the Tri-Rail station, Metrobus, rental car center and most importantly, the MIA mover which will carry you the rest of the way to the airport.

As for West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, both don’t have strong connections with public transit only having county bus connections. Shuttle buses to the Tri-Rail/Amtrak and Brightline stations exist at the West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale AIRPORT station.

Tri-Rail can also be used to get between the 3 airports just in case your flight from FLL is cancelled and the only available flight of the day is from PBI just get on the Tri-Rail to West Palm Beach and use the shuttle to get there.

Brightline also have some type of airport connections but they aren’t as good as Tri-Rails since their stations are mainly for the cities rather than the airports and are also more expensive, I’d just stick with Tri- Rail.


Miami (MIA) is once again the clear winner here, Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and West Palm Beach (PBI) are similar but I’ll give the edge to FLL since Tri-Rail has a dedicated station to serve the airport rather than using the city station itself.

Score:

MIA FLL PBI
4 3 2

Category 4: Price to fly into

I’m a budget traveler, what airport will give me the lowest price?


To make this as comparable as possible, we will be a solo traveler flying from New York-JFK to South Florida for Spring Break (March 21st to 31st) planning to depart around 9-10AM and arrive 12-1PM. The flights were searched for on January 15th at around 10AM.

For Miami, the flight I found with the availability wanted costs $420 with American Airlines leaving JFK at 9:00 AM and arriving in MIA at 12:29 PM. The cheapest is $377 with JetBlue however it does have an 8:40 PM departure and 11:59 PM arrival.

Fort Lauderdale like I mentioned already can be very budget friendly especially since Spirit and JetBlue primarily try to focus their South Florida operations to FLL. JetBlue offers a 11:00 AM departure and 2:06 PM arrival flight at $417 this is once again not the cheapest flight, that flight costs $292 and is also on JetBlue but with a similar departure and arrival time that their cheapest MIA flight had.

Palm Beach unfortunately isn’t a whole lot better in fact, it’s actually the worst of the 3. The most ideal flight for our preference is once again on JetBlue at $422 while the cheapest flight also on JetBlue is slightly better since it isn’t as late as the others and the cheapest at $272.

Can they cheaper? Of course if you choose to fly out of the other NYC airports, choose different times to fly and most importantly not come for Spring Break but I wanted to make this as comparable as possible instead of having a $420 flight on AA from JFK to MIA and a $70 Spirit LGA to FLL flight so if our results will be based on our criteria.


Miami (MIA) provides a flight around an hour earlier than our criteria suggests at $420 on American Airlines. JetBlue has a flight around an hour later than wanted for $3 cheaper into Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Palm Beach (PBI) having the most expensive one at $422 for a flight leaving at the perfect time. But since this about money and not time, MIA finds itself in 2nd place, FLL to no ones surprise in 1st and PBI once again in dead last.

Score:

MIA FLL PBI
5 5 2

Category 5: Ease

Which airport is easier to navigate and smoother to use?


Miami being the biggest and busiest of the 3 might seem like the hardest to navigate but actually pretty straight forward. It has 3 terminals, North (Blue) Central (Yellow) and South (Red) and is split into 6 concourses. The north terminal only consists of concourse D, central consists of concourses E, F and G and the south the remaining H and J. All concourses except D are simply a hallway leading to the gates so it’s pretty much impossible to get lost. The D concourse is probably the most confusing as it’s the largest and is where American Airlines operates their MIA hub out of. They do have a few flights from concourse E which kind of brings me to my next point,

NOTE: None of the concourses except D and E are connected airside

This makes MIA an extremely inefficient airport to connect through unless your flying American, flying into MIA on AA and departing on Delta will involve you changing from concourse D to H which will require you to leave the secure area and re clear security.

If flying in from a foreign country, passport control will be REQUIRED upon landing even if you’re connecting onto another domestic flight in the US. You will also need to reclaim your bags first before heading back to the departures hall meaning you’ll have to drop them off again and re clear security which can take some time especially during peak hours.

Fort Lauderdale has 4 terminals consisting of 7 concourses and once again are simple hallways of gates making it impossible to get lost in as well. Only terminals 1 and 2 are standalone so 3 and 4 arguably the most important ones are connected airside which is extremely helpful for connections. Spirit and JetBlue, the 2 monopolies controlling FLL primarily operate out of terminals 3 and 4 respectively however, they do sometimes occasionally fly into the other terminal.

The only passport control facility in the airport is in concourse G making the arrivals process much more painful than MIAs and the fact that you reclaim your bags first and then clear passport control really sucks since the line can easily build up during peak hours while you wait for your bag. And just like MIA and every other US airport, you will need to drop it off and re clear security as well.

Palm Beach being the smallest airport makes it the easiest to navigate with 1 giant terminal split into 3 concourses, A, B and C and a big drawback is that NONE of them are connected airside meaning a change of concourse results in a another security check. The concourses here are also pretty much straightforward but having 1 terminal building just makes things extra smoother. Well not all of them, concourse A is actually downstairs since it only serves Bahamasair which uses turboprops to serve PBI.

Passport control is pretty much non existent here as the only flights using it are Bahamasair since both Toronto (YYZ) and Montreal (YUL) have US pre clearance facilities but if you do pass through here, it’s the same process with MIA and FLL if connecting onto a US domestic flight.


While all 3 airports are not hard to navigate, I’d say Miami (MIA) loses this category since it can get extremely busy driving away passengers who prefer smaller airports to fly through not to mention that traversing concourse D can get tiring especially when the Skytrain is down which is sometimes is. Fort Lauderdale (FLL) is in 2nd for besting slightly less busier than MIA and their biggest concourse, G not being a complete pain to traverse that leaves Palm Beach (PBI) as the winner here for not being busy at all, everything located in 1 main terminal and the airport overall being a quick in and out experience.

The results are in and the final tally is,

MIA 🥈 FLL 🥇 PBI 🥉
5 6 4

This makes Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) the winner making it the best airport in South Florida on terms of these factors but it truly depends on your preference, do you prefer flying into easy to use airports like PBI? Do you like the hussle and bussle of a major hub like MIA? Or do you like to fly into airports that favor low cost airlines for cheap fares like FLL? It’s all up to you


Community feedback

What do other people think about these airports?


I gave my personal input on these airports but I was wondering what other South Floridian’s have to say about their experiences at the 3 airports,

@adam_2tuff says,

FLL is better for domestic flights since it’s less busier than MIA and easy to get around not mentioning the often cheap fares you can on Spirit. MIA is better for international since they have much larger facilities better capable of serving international flights.

@CaptainZac says,

Living in Fort Lauderdale, FLL would be his choice of airport. PBI is too far to get up to especially during rush air. And he even states PBI is often more expensive like I showed in my experiment, MIA is too far from him and generally doesn’t like American Airlines who have a hub there and also doesn’t like concourse E which is understandable. He suggests using FLL since it’s often cheaper and not hard to get to and is always expanding like it right now with a new terminal.

@CEEKAYDA_97 says,

PBI is gonna be more interesting on the spotting end especially since current president elect, Donald Trump. Has his Maralago estate to the east of the airport along the intercostal waterway (you can even see on departures from runway 10L and arrivals into 28R) and often comes to town, you can spot the famous modified Boeing 747 that has the pleasure of carrying the president and even when his term is over, you can still spot his GORGEOUS 757 he calls “Trump force one”


Well, that will be it for this comparison on the 3 major airports in South Florida, stay tuned to see the next part of my Jackson Hole trip were we will actually begin the journey home and as always between now and the next, see you in the sky! 😉👋

11 Likes

What, this is more than I write in my essays…

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And surprisingly was less exhausting to write

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Ha! Yeah because you want to write this

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A very interesting read! I can see you did some very thorough research - great job!

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Very in depth and helpful topic! I like the testimonials from the people who live in the region.

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Former Miami native here (I’m sad you didn’t ask me about this 😢) but I only ever flew out of MIA, domestically and internationally. FLL may be cheaper but to the majority of the people I knew in Miami (including myself) just thought Fort Lauderdale was really far and much preferred to use MIA.

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I’ve heard decent things about PBI spotting but MIA spotting is genuinely world class in specific configurations.

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I already asked everybody I polled before you told me to include you in South Florida related topics

Yeah that’s fair lol 😭 either way this is a very accurate and informative guide! I have a cool story about a time I spotted at FLL and saw something awesome but that’s for another time ;)

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@adam_2tuff where u at?

somewhere in the universe, somewhere somewhere far away

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