Great article in the KC Business Journal about KCI. The nearly 30 minute average wait time if or KCI is actually accurate.
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... ci-in.html
KCI is a serious mess and it's doing tremendous economic harm to metro KC.
A few key items:
Airport is held hostage by frequent voters, not frequent flyers. Only 18% of frequent kcmo voters even use KCI.
A supporter of the single-terminal KCI plan, Klika said he thinks Kansas City leaders will ask voters to weigh in on it in the fall. But if the ballot-box approach fails, he said, the transportation authority board he chairs could take over the operation of KCI, allowing bonds for its modernization to be issued without a public vote.
“The ATA was created as a bistate authority for the purpose of regional transportation, and we have the ability to issue revenue bonds,” Klika said. “Under one scenario, the assets of the airport could potentially be transferred over to the authority, which would utilize the revenue generated by the airport to secure those bonds.”
It’s a radical approach and hasn’t been fully vetted from a legal standpoint, Klika said.
“Yes, you have a shorter distance to walk to baggage claim,” Klika said, “but actually getting your bags takes forever. And if your flight gets delayed, you have to sit around in a crowded boarding area with sloppy bathrooms and access to very few amenities, unless you want to go back outside the gate” — which you probably won’t given KCI’s average 28.8-minute TSA wait time.
The single-terminal plan would address those shortcomings while maintaining current conveniences, Justus said.
“I’ve also heard about companies we were courting as a region who said, ‘You just flat out don’t meet our needs as far as air transport is concerned, so we can’t consider you,’” she said. “Those things are frustrating when you have a community that’s growing as quickly and dynamically as we are right now.”
There is demand for more flights, and more direct flights, in Kansas City, the Aviation Department’s Justin Meyer recently explained. But airlines will locate new direct flights at other airports with less demand, he said, because KCI isn’t as pleasant an environment for business fliers, especially those getting on connecting flights.
Think about how you would occupy your time during a 40-minute layover at KCI. Inside the security area and outside, there is limited seating, limited restrooms, extremely limited options for eating or shopping and only superficial local flavor.
If you’re connecting to a flight on another airline — you just better pray that it’s not in the other terminal.
A separate survey gives our airport a D+ grade when it comes to passenger-centric measures. Measures of parking costs and public transit options aren’t far from the norm. The number of carriers operating out of KCI (10) and the number of retailers and restaurants (33) are nothing to brag about, but they aren’t horrible.
Where KCI takes a dive is the average time it takes to get through security — 28.8 minutes. That’s worse than all but two of the 46 airports on the grade card, behind Washington Dulles International and Greater Buffalo International.
