OFFICIAL - New KCI Terminal

[KCKev]

What hotel downtown? And where are you renting a car? Interesting choice to not rent car from airport.

[iamrealz]

I'm surprised the garage is full. Maybe a lot of people wanting the full experience that will go back to economy eventually? Or more people flying in general? I saw some advice on social media to use the garage to pick people up rather than the cell phone lot too.

https://twitter.com/Fly_KansasCity/stat ... 80546?s=20

[hartliss]

I'm surprised the garage is full. Maybe a lot of people wanting the full experience that will go back to economy eventually? Or more people flying in general? I saw some advice on social media to use the garage to pick people up rather than the cell phone lot too.

https://twitter.com/Fly_KansasCity/stat ... 80546?s=20

Likewise. I believe the capacity of new garage matched other two combined plus some of the circle lot capacity.

[herrfrank]

The garage is full? Did they open the whole structure for the airport opening or is there more to come?

This will get some attention from the usual, professional grievance administrators. Cue the KC Star.

It is however Spring Break, and garage capacity was usually a mid-week phenomenon, as many business travelers vacate the garage on Thursday.

[langosta]

I'm surprised the garage is full. Maybe a lot of people wanting the full experience that will go back to economy eventually? Or more people flying in general? I saw some advice on social media to use the garage to pick people up rather than the cell phone lot too.

https://twitter.com/Fly_KansasCity/stat ... 80546?s=20

Likewise. I believe the capacity of new garage matched other two combined plus some of the circle lot capacity.

The other 2 were maybe 2,000 spaces each?

[rxlexi]

Man, full new garage (6,200 spaces) seems hard to believe if the total capacity is available. I think each of the old terminal garages were around 2,000 spaces and only B ever really filled up in my experience. Need variable pricing in place.

[beautyfromashes]

I have a feeling the expansion plan for this airport is going to be implemented much sooner than they expected. Some people have underestimated how a terrible airport like the one we had depressed demand and how much this new airport will feel small very quickly.

[GRID]

What hotel downtown? And where are you renting a car? Interesting choice to not rent car from airport.

Have not chose a hotel yet, probably Westin, which is a decent hotel for the government rate I get even though it's pretty dated. Hard to believe that's still a Weston property honestly. Anyway haha.

Renting a car at KCI is quite a bit more expensive than off airport especially now with how much car rentals have gone up since covid but never came back down to normal levels. I don't do it often, but when I can, I will rent a car from downtown or even better NKC where you don't have to pay KCMO taxes. I have done this many times in other cities as well. It's often way cheaper to rent off airport, but since it often doesn't matter that you can bring it back to the airport, it's a no brainer so long as there is good transit or something.

In this case, it's about $150 less to rent from downtown or NKC which is well worth the extra 30 minutes of taking the free bus. I can then return the car to the airport.

Hertz has a location in the Westin. I believe Avis has a location at the Marriot. We have also rented from enterprise downtown, but I think we had to bring that car back to that location.

[GRID]

I have a feeling the expansion plan for this airport is going to be implemented much sooner than they expected. Some people have underestimated how a terrible airport like the one we had depressed demand and how much this new airport will feel small very quickly.

Been saying that from day one but have generally been ridiculed for even thinking it. Just by comparing the new KCI to comparable airports, I have always thought the primary garage was going to be on the small side and the sq footage of the new terminal is also on the small side (for a brand new terminal).

KCI is going from basically nothing but gates to an actual airport terminal. A terminal you can't sit and wait at the curbs like you are at Springfield's airport or something, a terminal that will have restaurants etc.

It's a good thing I guess. Was the garage designed to be expanded?

Also, it seems like the economy parking situation there just sucks now. I blame most of that on poor shuttle service. I mean that economy lot is HUGE and it was at 80% occupancy most of the time the first ten years it was open. Now I bet it rarely hits 1/3 full. That's KCI's fault for running that service so bad. I still think drop off should be at arrivals level and frequency should be no longer than every ten minutes. Those two things alone will get people back to using economy lots.

[langosta]

Maybe build one river the Surface lot and airport police building?

[KCPowercat]

We are taking the bus to our hotel downtown from KCI and then returning our rental car to the airport, so will have a review of using both the city bus an the rental car shuttle!

I like it!

[TheLastGentleman]

I have a feeling the expansion plan for this airport is going to be implemented much sooner than they expected. Some people have underestimated how a terrible airport like the one we had depressed demand and how much this new airport will feel small very quickly.

Been saying that from day one but have generally been ridiculed for even thinking it. Just by comparing the new KCI to comparable airports, I have always thought the primary garage was going to be on the small side and the sq footage of the new terminal is also on the small side (for a brand new terminal).

KCI is going from basically nothing but gates to an actual airport terminal. A terminal you can't sit and wait at the curbs like you are at Springfield's airport or something, a terminal that will have restaurants etc.

It's a good thing I guess. Was the garage designed to be expanded?

Also, it seems like the economy parking situation there just sucks now. I blame most of that on poor shuttle service. I mean that economy lot is HUGE and it was at 80% occupancy most of the time the first ten years it was open. Now I bet it rarely hits 1/3 full. That's KCI's fault for running that service so bad. I still think drop off should be at arrivals level and frequency should be no longer than every ten minutes. Those two things alone will get people back to using economy lots.

I think everyone has been saying this….

[Highlander]

I have a feeling the expansion plan for this airport is going to be implemented much sooner than they expected. Some people have underestimated how a terrible airport like the one we had depressed demand and how much this new airport will feel small very quickly.

Been saying that from day one but have generally been ridiculed for even thinking it. Just by comparing the new KCI to comparable airports, I have always thought the primary garage was going to be on the small side and the sq footage of the new terminal is also on the small side (for a brand new terminal).

KCI is going from basically nothing but gates to an actual airport terminal. A terminal you can't sit and wait at the curbs like you are at Springfield's airport or something, a terminal that will have restaurants etc.

It's a good thing I guess. Was the garage designed to be expanded?

Also, it seems like the economy parking situation there just sucks now. I blame most of that on poor shuttle service. I mean that economy lot is HUGE and it was at 80% occupancy most of the time the first ten years it was open. Now I bet it rarely hits 1/3 full. That's KCI's fault for running that service so bad. I still think drop off should be at arrivals level and frequency should be no longer than every ten minutes. Those two things alone will get people back to using economy lots.

Sounds like the economy lot will be put into use this week.

https://fox4kc.com/news/new-kci-parking ... avel-rush/

Not sure why people insist on parking in the in-close lot at ~$25 per day. I'd do that for an overnight flight but nothing longer. The economy lots are only $7.50 per day. Hopefully the bus service has improved since the opening of the new terminal. I have read the big issue in keeping the buses running has been finding enough drivers. KC needs to drop its residency requirement as a condition for employment at the airport.

[Sani]

The Blue Bus will still serve economy parking, and KCI officials said buses will pick up at shuttle stops every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Uh, could we change that to 10-minute headways during rush periods?

[beautyfromashes]

Not sure why people insist on parking in the in-close lot at ~$25 per day. I'd do that for an overnight flight but nothing longer. The economy lots are only $7.50 per day.

I assume a lot of it is non-overnight parking. If I was picking up a family member at the airport right now, I’m sure I’d go early, park in the garage and walk around inside the terminal. I, of course, would never do this at the old airport. It’s the gawker affect. This will likely burn off eventually. Everyone just wants to see the new shiny object.

[GRID]

If all the rental car buses, hotel buses, parking buses etc are dropping off everybody at the arrivals level parking garage (instead of the departures level), that has to be making that crosswalk between the garage and the terminal insanely busy. That could also be causing problems on the arrivals level with cars queued waiting for the crosswalk to clear.

I think I will be spending some time at KCI just watching logistics. I still don't see why they did a lot of the things they did other than cost cutting.

And I still say there is no excuse for not having ten minute shuttle bus service. Every other airport seems to be able to make it happen. At BWI they come every five minutes it seems and those are either full size or articulated buses. KCI needs to pay more or make the office people drive buses till they can fill the positions. I mean if I ran an airport, I would drive a bus before I let my airport go to shit over something like that.

Find a way.

[KCPowercat]

I'm surprised the garage is full. Maybe a lot of people wanting the full experience that will go back to economy eventually? Or more people flying in general? I saw some advice on social media to use the garage to pick people up rather than the cell phone lot too.

https://twitter.com/Fly_KansasCity/stat ... 80546?s=20

Likewise. I believe the capacity of new garage matched other two combined plus some of the circle lot capacity.

Spring break. Think the old ones would always get full this week of the year.

[KCPowercat]

I have a feeling the expansion plan for this airport is going to be implemented much sooner than they expected. Some people have underestimated how a terrible airport like the one we had depressed demand and how much this new airport will feel small very quickly.

Been saying that from day one but have generally been ridiculed for even thinking it. Just by comparing the new KCI to comparable airports, I have always thought the primary garage was going to be on the small side and the sq footage of the new terminal is also on the small side (for a brand new terminal).

KCI is going from basically nothing but gates to an actual airport terminal. A terminal you can't sit and wait at the curbs like you are at Springfield's airport or something, a terminal that will have restaurants etc.

It's a good thing I guess. Was the garage designed to be expanded?

Also, it seems like the economy parking situation there just sucks now. I blame most of that on poor shuttle service. I mean that economy lot is HUGE and it was at 80% occupancy most of the time the first ten years it was open. Now I bet it rarely hits 1/3 full. That's KCI's fault for running that service so bad. I still think drop off should be at arrivals level and frequency should be no longer than every ten minutes. Those two things alone will get people back to using economy lots.

You were saying the garage is too small and were ridiculed? I feel like I've been in about every page of this convo and I don't remember any of this.

Seems silly to expand a garage for a couple day during spring break capacity. Like building the church for Christmas.

[GRID]

^ I actually discussed it with you some:

So after a little research, the garages had 6600 spaces and you also had the parking lots between them. So lets just say 7000 spaces very close to the terminals.

The new garage is 6300 spaces. I know KCI was forced to use two garages, but there was a time when KCI would fill all three garages during peak times when they were all in use.

My point is that KCI will ultimately need to maintain a flight economy of similar size again. That is if the airport gets its traffic back and gets even busier than it was prior to covid.

Maybe the airport will build something south of the RCF for economy parking, but unless they structure the parking (which then would not be economy), they won't have enough room. So they will still need at least part of the existing lots. They could install a covered lot there (like the parking spot) and charge more than economy, but les than the garage. But that still leaves getting the APM out to the big lots.

I find it odd that everything about this new airport is actually smaller than the original three terminal KCI. KCI was so overbuilt. It's really too bad that it was never really utilized. Hopefully a major expansion is needed within a couple of decades.

You also have to factor in how few people used the garages as temporary parking for picking up and dropping off. That alone could take up a good portion of the new garage.

Again, I simply brought up the idea that the new garage will not have more for sure, but might even have less parking than the old terminals/surface lots. Especially if you include all three garages and KCI was using the "closed" garage for valet etc. because the other garages were often full.

My point was and still is that they probably should have built a bigger garage or they need to build a secondary garage (something that is like $10 a day) but a little further away than the terminal garage.

And once again, my posts about KCI are not meant to shit on the airport, they are simply me analyzing and comparing it to its former self and other airports. It's just meant for discussion. I'm not trying to hate on the airport, but I still think a lot of things could have been done better and many things could still be fixed or improved.

You want people to use economy parking? Make buses come every 5-10 minutes. Especially if you are using those little buses. And drop off departures at the departures curb. All those little things add up.

And it sounds like nobody in KC even knows there is a city bus that will take you downtown for free. Come on. Marketing??? There should be signs all over the airport mentioning it. Especially in brand new terminal which now has a new centralized and easy place to find the bus.

[horizons82]

The C garage is sitting empty. No reason they couldn't repurpose that as an overflow covered parking lot for the near-mid term.

More importantly raise the daily rate. $28 is too low for a brand new garage that close.

That said, this seems like a passing problem that should only arise 2-3 times a year max.