The problems surfaced in February, prompting a stern letter from the airport to the software provider, which has been paid about $5 million since 2019 to upgrade and operate the payment system and equipment for MIA’s parking garages.
The provider, Designa Access Corp., said the software fix that was needed to permanently solve the temporary glitches went live this week. That should mean no more need for garage attendants to use hand-held payment devices as backups for when the main system went dark.
“Fully fixed today,” Designa CEO Brett Winslow said Wednesday in an email to the Miami Herald. Customers trying to pay at kiosks or at the exit gates “would not see or experience any issues.”
An MIA administrator said in a letter to Designa that the problems started on Feb. 9 when the company’s computer system suffered “a complete failure.”
Winslow said the initial fix took a week, restoring the bulk of the technology needed to keep garage payments running smoothly. The system “was fully brought back online” on Wednesday, he said.
Gregory Chin, a spokesperson for MIA, said the garages’ self-payment system was only out for six days, between Feb. 9 and Feb. 14. Some travelers were allowed to exit the garage without paying during that window, Chin said in an email Friday morning. He did not provide a dollar figure for the lost revenue. While county owned, MIA operates on airline fees and concession rental revenue and does not receive tax dollars.
Chin said the software fix that went live this week restored technology needed to read license plates, which only impacts parking areas for MIA employees. Before the fix, employees had to show their IDs to enter those parking areas.
Two passengers told the Herald on Thursday they did not have issues paying for their MIA garage stays during recent travels. A Herald reporter attempting to leave an MIA garage on Feb. 22 was unable to use a credit card at either the pedestrian payment kiosk inside the garage or the one at the exit. An attendant communicating through a speaker asked the reporter to read out the number on the garage ticket to calculate how much was owed.
Two days earlier, an MIA administrator had sent Designa a stern letter about the problems.
“Passengers have experienced substantial inconvenience and disruption of service,” Basil Binns, an MIA administrator, wrote in a Feb. 20 letter. The letter declared the company in default of its contractual obligations with Miami-Dade County and demanded a fix to problems that had forced garages to let an unknown number of travelers exit without paying.
“We have incurred significant and ongoing revenue losses,” wrote Basil, deputy director of the county’s Aviation Department.
In an email exchange with the Herald, Winslow said the recent software upgrades have restored the system into working order. Winslow said Designa shouldn’t be held responsible for lost revenue because MIA is supposed to have workarounds for collecting payment when the equipment is down.
This story has been updated with information from MIA’s spokesperson.
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