EDITOR’S NOTE: Kansas City International is in the midst of a push to replace its 40-year-old horseshoe-shaped terminals with a new facility. As with many airport projects, there are ardent supporters and strong-willed detractors. ARN plans to chronicle the developments at MCI over several months as the proposed massive infrastructure project winds through the various stages of planning and approval processes. Starting this month, we’ll look at what airports and airlines hope to get from a new terminal building; next month, we’ll look at the thoughts of those supporting the project; and in October, we’ll discuss opponents’ desires to save the current terminal. But that’s just the beginning. Looking forward, ARN will revisit MCI’s push as milestones warrant.
Kansas City International (MCI) is beloved by many locals for the convenience of its parking and the short trek from lots to ticket counters and security checkpoints.
But it also has a lot of quirks: narrow walkways and multiple ticketing counters and baggage claims, along with segmented security checkpoints in each of its three terminals. And, after four decades of exposure to the elements, it has cracking walls and leaking roofs, with exterior concrete starting to fall apart. According to officials from MCI, Southwest Airlines and the city, it’s time for the airport’s three horseshoe-shaped terminals to be replaced with a more efficient single terminal with 35 gates and many more amenities.
Those officials took the next step in their ongoing efforts to modernize MCI in late July when they updated the Kansas City Council on negotiations over what a new facility might look like.
“Kansas City deserves an international airport that works,” says Justin Meyer, deputy director of aviation marketing and air service development, in an interview with ARN a few days before the council presentation. “What we can’t do is watch 50-year-old chunks of concrete fall and watch the roof leak and come apart. Everything that’s ever been made has a lifespan. What we are approaching is the end of the useful life of a 50-year-old terminal.”
Discussions On Terminal Replacement Ongoing
The special council meeting was set up by Kansas City Mayor Sly James to provide a public update on negotiations between the airport and its airlines, particularly for newly elected council members.
During the presentation, one councilman asked Steve Sisneros to step outside of his role as director of airport affairs for Southwest Airlines and talk about what he thinks of MCI as a traveler. Sisneros recalled spending six hours there during a delay. He was trying to get home to Dallas from a wedding in Denver but his connecting flight was canceled, leaving him seeking ways to pass the time.
To continue reading this story Click here to subscribe
