New terminal at Kansas City airport wows local air travelers
By Mark Poulose
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KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KCTV) — 10,000 Kansas Citians received a sneak peek at the new terminal at KCI on Saturday. The new $1.5B facility replaces the old terminals that opened in 1972, more than 50 years ago.
“It’s worth the money they spent on it,” said Sherry McDonald, who visited the new terminal on Saturday. “Definitely worth it.”
The new terminal sits on the ground where Terminal A used to sit. KCI’s marketing director said it was time for the airport to make a change.
“The existing terminals have some problems,” said KCI’s Justin Meyer. “There’s not enough restroom capacity in the gate areas, there’s not enough seats in the gate areas, there is just quite frankly not enough space.”
10,000 Kansas Citians reserved a spot in a special open house on Saturday. The early reviews of the new terminal were excellent.
“This is great,” said open house attendee, Michael Lampton. “I’m really glad to see them really invest back into the city and bring us up to modern times because the old airport really was showing it’s age.”
The new terminal will open with 40 gates but has the capacity to increase to 50. KCI hopes that potential brings more air-traffic to Kansas City.
“We’ve heard from our airlines that they have intentionally reduced connecting itineraries over Kansas City,” Meyer said. “While we are certainly not expecting to become a hub, a little bit in terms of intentionality in terms of flight scheduling would really help us be able to grow our air service portfolio.”
The new terminal will bring a new look to Kansas City. Local air travelers told us they think out-of-towners will be shocked the next time they fly to Kansas City.
“They are going to wonder where they are at,” said Lampton. “This is going to be such a night and day difference. A breath of fresh air, for sure.”
“I think they’re going to really like it because it will be easier for them to move about the terminal itself,” said air traveler Don Michalski. “It won’t be as complicated as it was before.”
“See it,” said McDonald. “Definitely come see it.”
The new terminal opens on Feb. 28.
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