Florida, U.S.A - February 18, 2024 - The view inside of the terminal at Miami International Airport

The Miami International Airport (MIA) spends $34 million a year on cleaning, and complaints have been flooding in about unkempt conditions. According to Miami Herald reporting, much of the backlash is from the cleaning crew themselves who argue recent expansions in flight offerings and passenger traffic (up 16 percent from 2019) have not prompted an appropriate increase in workforce of cleaning teams.

Managed by Miami-Dade County, the airport seems to also include a long roll of red tape. Something as simple as replacing broken paper towel dispensers, even at no cost, must follow county contracting rules, which require a bidding process.

The frustrations have come to light at a time when the existing cleaning contract is up for negotiation. C&W Services, the current contractor, argued in a 2022 email to the County Commission's Airport Committee: “We are simply being set up to fail at MIA by the airport’s inability to support and take action of ‘low hanging fruit’ proposals provided by C&W Services to improve not only services but the current perception the public has about MIA.”

According to reports, airport and county officials agree that public perception is key (MIA has faced backlash on social and from the media about cleanliness), which is why they started doing surprise inspections of random spaces. The results showed a number of shortcomings. 

The current $34 million contract was set in 2019. The Miami Herald reports that C&W requested an annual increase of $1.3 million in 2021 as post-pandemic cleaning frequencies increased and passenger volume grew, but the request was rejected. 

With the five-year contract now up for bid, MIA is allocating about $52 million a year for cleaning. 

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