Florida

Space Center to honor astronauts

The public is invited to the Astronauts Memorial Foundation’s ceremony to honor the crew of space shuttle Columbia STS-107 in remembrance of the 10th anniversary of the Columbia disaster. The ceremony, at 10 a.m. Friday at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, celebrates and memorializes all astronauts who have sacrificed their lives for the nation and its space program. Details: 877-313-2610 or www.KennedySpaceCenter.com.

Air travel

MIA sets a record

Miami International Airport officials say a record number of people traveled through their terminals in 2012. According to MIA, 39.5 million passengers came through the airport last year. That’s up more than 1.1 million passengers from 2011.

The number of international passengers grew 5.2 percent to 19.4 million travelers. The number of domestic passengers grew by 1 percent to 20.1 million.

More than 2.1 million tons of cargo also passed through the airport.

Airport officials say an expansion by American Airlines to 38 cities, including six new routes, helped boost passenger traffic. Five other international airlines also added service last year.

Southwest may

owe you a drink

For millions of Southwest Airlines passengers, the drinks are on the house.

The airline has reached a tentative settlement with passengers who sued over drink vouchers given to “business select” passengers before Aug. 1, 2010.

On that date, Southwest changed its policy, saying that even though the drink vouchers had no expiration date, the airline would honor them only on the date passengers were traveling.

In the lawsuit filed in 2011, the plaintiffs, Adam Levitt and Herbert Malone, said the policy change amounts to a breach of contract and made the coupons worthless.

The airline had previously said that it changed its policy because passengers were making photocopies of the vouchers to get free drinks.

Under the settlement, Southwest could be on the hook to redeem as many as 5.8 million vouchers. Since the airline charges $5 for alcoholic drinks, the settlement is worth as much as $29 million.

If you think Southwest owes you a drink, go to www.southwestvouchersettlement.com. You must file before Sept. 2.

New service

JetBlue Airways has announced plans to add daily nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica, effective June 27.

Miami Herald

wire services