Mark Gale, Head of Fort Lauderdale Airport, Facing Scrutiny
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) has long been a gateway to South Florida’s vibrant communities, yet its management under Mark Gale has been plagued with significant issues that have disrupted travel and inconvenienced countless passengers. As a result, it’s time to consider a change in leadership at our beloved FLL airport.
A Troubled Tenure That Even Had a Mass Shooting
In 2017, FLL was the site of a tragic mass shooting, an event that highlighted glaring security failures. Considering the immense resources allocated to airport security, this breach under Gale’s watch was nothing short of astounding. Security at an international airport should be near-impenetrable, yet this tragic event exposed vulnerabilities that were left unaddressed by the airport’s leadership. Then, just yesterday, the airport suffered a bomb threat.
The Flooding
The issues at FLL did not end there. The airport has repeatedly closed due to flooding, and in recent months, it has taken a seemingly overly cautious stance toward any inclement weather. Just last month, on the 15th, passengers experienced an inexplicable shutdown due to a brief rainstorm lasting less than 30 minutes. Despite clear skies shortly afterward, the airport grounded all flights, leading to chaos as thousands of passengers were stranded and forced to change their plans at a moment’s notice.
The consequences of this hasty decision to ground all flights rippled across the country, delaying and canceling flights nationwide. The decision to ground flights for such a minor weather event raises serious concerns about the leadership’s decision-making process. It felt as though the person making the call was unfamiliar with Florida’s typical weather patterns. We live in a state where brief storms are the norm and rarely warrant such drastic measures.
As a result of these constant and unreasonable groundings, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport has been ranked seventh in the nation for the most delays, despite not being a major connection hub. We are primarily a destination airport, yet Gale and his team are being outperformed by larger, busier airports in the middle of the country.
Immigration Woes
FLL’s immigration system is another area where Gale’s leadership falls short. The process is an understaffed nightmare, with long lines often stretching across the entire immigration baggage area, causing extensive delays for arriving international passengers. Sometimes, they even have to keep passengers stowed in other large empty rooms at the airport because the immigration lines are so long they can’t fit everyone in the baggage area. The FLL immigration system is outdated, with insufficient staffing and a lack of foresight regarding the volume of passengers at any given time. This is flat-out unacceptable for an airport in a region where international travel is so prevalent. Immigration should never take more than 20 minutes, and under 10 minutes should be the goal. This is 2024; it’s been 23 years since 9/11. They have had more than enough time to organize and streamline the security process at FLL to be efficient for international travelers.
June 23, 2024 – This is one of the baggage terminals at FLL for international flights. As you can see the line sprawls throughout the entire giant room. You have to stand in this long line, then stand in the stanchions line maze at the end. Just to get access to the immigration room where you have to go through even more spiral lines and another maze garden of stanchions. If you are really unlucky you are stored in another room of stanchions before even getting access to these two rooms of extensive stanchion mazes.
We can’t give Fort Lauderdale Airport any more money. It expanded too fast it’s a complete disorganized mess. Wait times are longer than flight times. Look at this! @FLLFlyer @DeanTrantalis @BrowardCounty pic.twitter.com/XYEbBJbkUN
— Patrick Zarrelli (@PJZNY) June 23, 2024
The Global Entry Fiasco: A Personal Account of Incompetence at FLL
Compounding this issue is the airport’s flawed Global Entry program. My personal experience with the program under Gale’s oversight was nothing short of a bureaucratic disaster. Despite a clean record for over two decades and being in the media, I was denied Global Entry due to a minor incident from my college years, where I was arrested for marijuana—a substance now ironically medically legal in Florida. In my case, the process of submitting documentation about the prior arrest was made nearly impossible by incorrect information provided by the agents, leading to a rejection without my documents ever being reviewed.
This is not just my story; many travelers face similar hurdles, with the Global Entry program at FLL being one of the most unprofessional in the nation. It reflects a culture of indifference and incompetence that has no place in an airport serving millions of international travelers.
As a tech CEO and media member with a clean record and a well-established reputation in the community, I expected the Global Entry process to be straightforward. Instead, I encountered a bureaucratic nightmare. My application was denied because of a minor infraction from over 22 years ago—an incident involving marijuana during my college years. The fact that this was brought up after more than two decades is not only absurd but irrelevant to my life as a 45-year-old professional today.
Despite the outdated nature of this offense, I was asked to provide court documents within 30 days to continue my application. However, the courts in Tallahassee, where the incident occurred, no longer retain these records. I was forced to hire a lawyer to obtain these twenty year old documents from the Clerk of Courts, which took nearly the entire 30-day window.
Once I finally obtained the documents, I quickly scanned and emailed them to the address provided by the Global Entry agent. To my dismay, the email address was incorrect—a mistake emblematic of the disorganized and unprofessional nature of the team handling these applications. After receiving no response, I logged into my account to discover that my application had been rejected due to the absence of the documents. This was not due to my failure to submit them, but rather because the staff at FLL gave me the wrong email and then did not bother to check the correct email account when I finally found it online and sent in the documents. To this day, they have never added my documents to my file.
This experience is not unique. A friend of mine, who works in aviation, was also rejected from Global Entry for a DUI over ten years ago in similar fashion. The hypocrisy is glaring, as it is highly likely that some of the agents involved in these rejections have worse criminal records themselves than the people they are rejecting. The situation is not just frustrating—it is outrageous.
Despite following every instruction and submitting all required documents, my case was dismissed without so much as a cursory review, phone call, or even a response to any of my many emails. Multiple attempts to contact the Global Entry office at FLL by phone were met with indifference and, in some cases, outright rudeness. When I finally emailed the correct address, my messages were ignored. When I called I was left on hold for over an hour. The level of incompetence and lack of accountability was staggering.
This experience highlights a broader culture and organizational issue at FLL, where the Global Entry program is emblematic of a failing immigration system. It is unacceptable that in a region as internationally connected as South Florida, the airport’s immigration process is marred by inefficiency, outdated procedures, and a complete disregard for customer service.
The Global Entry program at FLL should be a model of efficiency, helping to streamline the travel experience for frequent international travelers. Instead, it has become the worst part of an already broken immigration system at the airport. This failure is yet another reason why Mark Gale’s leadership is in question and why significant changes are needed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
We Don’t Want Spirit Airlines in Fort Lauderdale
Spirit Airlines is rapidly taking over Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), and it’s a disaster for passengers. As the worst airline by reputation, Spirit has earned its notoriety through understaffing, abysmal customer service, and policies that seem designed to rob passengers at every turn. From uncomfortable seats to nickel-and-diming for every little service, Spirit’s business model borders on fraud. Yet, despite this, Spirit has become a major airline at FLL, turning it into a hub for their operations—a move that South Florida does not want or deserve.
Fort Lauderdale is a gateway to a wealthy, vibrant region, and its airport should reflect that by offering quality airlines that respect their passengers. Instead, Mark Gale has allowed Spirit to dominate FLL, filling valuable slots that could be used by far better airlines. FLL should be a hub for airlines that offer comfort, reliability, and respect—not a playground for Spirit’s predatory practices. South Florida deserves better, and it’s time to push back against Spirit’s takeover of our airport.
A Leadership in Crisis
The problems at FLL are not limited to immigration and weather-related closures. The airport’s taxi system is chaotic, with cabs rarely making it to all terminals during busy times. Furthermore, unscrupulous, unregulated drivers take advantage of unsuspecting tourists, charging exorbitant fees for short rides and grifting Fort Lauderdale tourists the very second they arrive in our city.
These issues are symptomatic of a broader leadership crisis. While neighboring airports in Miami and West Palm Beach operated smoothly on August 15th, 2024, with no closure, FLL’s bizarre and unnecessary closure stands out as a glaring example of poor decision-making.
Mark Gale’s tenure as head of Fort Lauderdale Airport has been marked by repeated failures that have undermined the airport’s operations and eroded public trust. The mishandling of security, weather-related decisions, and the airport’s outdated and inefficient immigration process are more than enough reasons to demand his resignation.
It may be time for new leadership at FLL—leadership that prioritizes the needs of passengers, ensures efficient and effective operations, and brings a customer-centric approach to one of South Florida’s most important transportation hubs. Until that happens, continued investment in FLL’s expansion should be halted, as no amount of money can compensate for poor management.
A Call For Accountability at Fort Lauderdale Airport
Why should we, as citizens, continue to pour massive investments into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport when it consistently fails to meet our basic operational standards? The airport frequently closes without valid reasons, has absurdly long lines at immigration, and operates a completely broken Global Entry system. Given this track record, are we really going to entrust Mark Gale with more funds ($400,000,000.00) to build a new Terminal Five? It’s time to halt all further investments and expansion at FLL until a competent leadership team is in place—one that prioritizes customer service and holds staff and systems accountable. We can’t keep throwing money at an airport just because it looks good; it also needs to function properly. And for many years now, it simply hasn’t.
