Miami to explore feasibility of flights to Asuncion, Riyadh, Singapore, and Tokyo

Miami-Dade County, home to Miami International Airport (MIA), has directed the county’s Airport Committee to explore the possibilities of adding flights between MIA and Asuncion, Paraguay; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Singapore; and Tokyo, Japan.

As first spotted by One Mile at a Time, Miami-Dade County’s Airport Committee’s Agenda for a meeting on October 16, 2025, includes a resolution by Danielle Cohen Higgins, one of the District Commissioners, to “determine the feasibility of direct passenger or cargo flights between [MIA] and the cities of Tokyo, Asuncion, Riyadh, and Singapore.”

If so, the county Mayor or their designee should “undertake all appropriate efforts to solicit such flights from the appropriate carriers,” and provide a quarterly report on feasibility or efforts to launch flights to the four cities. To presumably increase the chances of such flights happening, Higgins also requested the county’s International Trade Consortium (ITC) to negotiate and prepare sister city agreements with Tokyo, Riyadh, and Singapore.

Miami and Asuncion have been sister cities since 1994, according to the county’s website, with the program serving “to promote international cultural understanding by developing programs that enhance citizen diplomacy, create international goodwill, and support the County’s global trade agenda.”

According to Cirium’s Diio Mi, MIA has only had direct flights to Asuncion Silvio Pettirossi International Airport (ASU) out of all the listed cities since at least 2000. American Airlines offered up to four weekly departures between November 2012 and March 2015, and Eastern Airlines had up to three weekly flights on the route from August 2020 until December 2021.

American Airlines could potentially return to the route, considering that in October 2025, out of the airline’s 759 weekly international departures from MIA, 302 were scheduled to Latin America, Cirium’s Diio Mi showed. Miami-Dade County described Paraguay’s economy as “one of the fastest-growing” in Latin America in the past decade.

While there are several connections, including direct ones, between some US East Coast airports and Riyadh King Khalid International Airport (RUH), Tokyo Haneda (HND) or Narita International Airport (NRT), and Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), MIA, or Florida, for that matter, has not had a direct flight to any of these airports since at least 2000.

Considering that Riyadh Air’s launch is imminent, and with its initial plan of connecting RUH with over 100 destinations across the globe to turn the city into a global hub, MIA could be on the list of potential destinations. The airline has yet to reveal any other routes, apart from the upcoming flights to Dubai International Airport (DXB).

Miami-Dade County pointed out that MIA already has direct flights to Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) and DXB, with Riyadh, as well as the Middle East, “rapidly transforming into a leading global economic hub.”

Riyadh Air confirms commercial flights to London-Heathrow to launch on October 26

Riyadh Air will limit ticket sales of the flights to select people, including its own employees.

The Engine CowlRytis Beresnevicius

Getting direct flights from/to SIN could be a difficult task. Singapore Airlines is the only airline to run direct connections from SIN to New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), with a scheduled block time of 18 hours and 40 minutes and 18 hours and 25 minutes, respectively.

Considering its small Airbus A350-900ULR subfleet of seven aircraft, which is dedicated to flying to the two New York Area airports, as well as San Francisco International Airport (SFO), adding MIA could be logistically impossible.

One-stops, though, are possible.

United Airlines, for example, has recently launched one-stops from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) and to Ho Chi Minh Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) via Hong Kong International Airport (HKG).

Considering the profile of MIA, namely that American Airlines has scheduled 52% of the airport’s total weekly international seats in October 2025, per Cirium’s Diio Mi, American Airlines could be the airline to launch direct flights from MIA to SIN.

Would it make sense, though, knowing that it could instead fly to HND or NRT, for example, and offer its passengers to transfer onto Japan Airlines’ flights to SIN? Probably not. On the other hand, the oneworld connection between American Airlines and Japan Airlines could make sense when considering a potential direct route from MIA to either HND or NRT.

(Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that Japan Airlines has scheduled double-daily departures from HND and daily flights from NRT to SIN in October 2025.)

The one thing that could change the equation – and my speculation, whether it would be flights to RUH, SIN, or Tokyo’s two airports, is if Miami-Dade County were willing to offer financial incentives to airlines. 

MIA’s last Air Service Incentive Program (ASIP6) was in 2019, when LOT Polish Airlines, Corsair, Norwegian, and Royal Air Maroc received “aggregate landing fee benefits totaling $605,601 at the conclusion of the respective promotional periods under” the program. The airlines had also qualified for marketing support that would have granted them up to $200,000, matched with an equal amount from the carrier, to promote their routes from/to MIA with “a mutually agreed” advertising campaign.

According to booking data from OAG, between August 2023 and July 2024, there were more than 39,000 round-trip passengers flying between MIA and ASU, 7,000 between MIA and RUH, 22,000 between MIA and HND, 16,000 between MIA and NRT, and 16,000 between MIA and SIN.