OFFICIAL - New KCI Terminal

[AlkaliAxel]

It's so fun getting a real airport!

*cue GRID coming at you now telling you how it’s not a real airport and every other city including has this, and how Indianapolis airport is so much more advanced than ours it even has a fire-breathing dragon at the front of theirs

I guess you don't actually comprehend my posts. I have always supported the new terminal 100% and am excited that KC will actually have a functioning modern airport terminal. That said, it absolutely will be a bare bones "economy" terminal. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that, but most new airport terminals around the USA and the World do try to go that extra mile to build something special and memorable.

The most memorable thing about the new KCI is that it will function like a normal airport should function and have even the most basic amenities that frequent travelers are used to in nearly any mid to major sized airport in the world. And that's okay. But I was just hoping for more. No big deal though.

You know it's okay to be down to earth and realistic about things and not always sound like a member of the chamber of commerce.

I actually do prefer to be a chamber of commerce hack lol. I’m sorry.

[GRID]

*cue GRID coming at you now telling you how it’s not a real airport and every other city including has this, and how Indianapolis airport is so much more advanced than ours it even has a fire-breathing dragon at the front of theirs

I guess you don't actually comprehend my posts. I have always supported the new terminal 100% and am excited that KC will actually have a functioning modern airport terminal. That said, it absolutely will be a bare bones "economy" terminal. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that, but most new airport terminals around the USA and the World do try to go that extra mile to build something special and memorable.

The most memorable thing about the new KCI is that it will function like a normal airport should function and have even the most basic amenities that frequent travelers are used to in nearly any mid to major sized airport in the world. And that's okay. But I was just hoping for more. No big deal though.

You know it's okay to be down to earth and realistic about things and not always sound like a member of the chamber of commerce.

I actually do prefer to be a chamber of commerce hack lol. I’m sorry.

Yes, I know. It's all good. Nothing wrong with that.

But it's also good to be honest about reality sometimes or you leave little reason to actually improve.

[AlkaliAxel]

I guess you don't actually comprehend my posts. I have always supported the new terminal 100% and am excited that KC will actually have a functioning modern airport terminal. That said, it absolutely will be a bare bones "economy" terminal. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that, but most new airport terminals around the USA and the World do try to go that extra mile to build something special and memorable.

The most memorable thing about the new KCI is that it will function like a normal airport should function and have even the most basic amenities that frequent travelers are used to in nearly any mid to major sized airport in the world. And that's okay. But I was just hoping for more. No big deal though.

You know it's okay to be down to earth and realistic about things and not always sound like a member of the chamber of commerce.

I actually do prefer to be a chamber of commerce hack lol. I’m sorry.

Yes, I know. It's all good. Nothing wrong with that.

But it's also good to be honest about reality sometimes or you leave little reason to actually improve.

To be honest I don’t know what the new KCI will be like compared to other airports because I haven’t been in new KCI yet, however I genuinely believe no matter what as long as we have a solid good airport we’re fine. For airports, I think as long as you hit a certain threshold, then you’re set, and getting “more amenities” at an airport at that point isn’t gonna impact thing that much more.

The problem is we hadn’t even been hitting the threshold.

[WoodDraw]

I travel a lot, and airports are very functional. I almost can’t describe any airport that I’ve been in.

I actually think our new terminal is more clever than most with the city market concept.

So far I’m a fan of the art too.

I think it’s time to let the “ it’s basic af” criticism go. It’s going to be a nice airport by us standards.

[KCPowercat]

What exactly are we not being honest about?

Agreed wood. This will be above average airport for the type of airport it is (non hub mid sized city) wtf is the concern everybody has?

[im2kull]

I travel a lot, and airports are very functional. I almost can’t describe any airport that I’ve been in.

I actually think our new terminal is more clever than most with the city market concept.

So far I’m a fan of the art too.

I think it’s time to let the “ it’s basic af” criticism go. It’s going to be a nice airport by us standards.

The problem is that it's not $1,000,000,000+ nice.. which is its price tag. Why are we paying over a billion dollars for a basic, economic, small airport? That's the criticism. We should be getting something substantially nicer.

[KCPowercat]

I don't think that is a common criticism at all. what does "substantially nicer" even mean?

[grovester]

Ferris wheel.

[AllThingsKC]

Ferris wheel.

Gondola.

[taxi]

Save Ferris wheel.

[GRID]

I actually do prefer to be a chamber of commerce hack lol. I’m sorry.

Yes, I know. It's all good. Nothing wrong with that.

But it's also good to be honest about reality sometimes or you leave little reason to actually improve.

To be honest I don’t know what the new KCI will be like compared to other airports because I haven’t been in new KCI yet, however I genuinely believe no matter what as long as we have a solid good airport we’re fine. For airports, I think as long as you hit a certain threshold, then you’re set, and getting “more amenities” at an airport at that point isn’t gonna impact thing that much more.

The problem is we hadn’t even been hitting the threshold.

I agree as far as the airport. That's why I'm fine and actually excited about the new KCI. It will be a game changer for KC.

A fancy terminal wouldn't really change that. It's just something I would have liked to see, but if it's not possible, that's fine. More important, can the terminal be expanded (by more than just a few gates) or can another terminal be built if KCI ever does get past being just a regional airport? And will the city act quickly if they see the potential need?

I do think KC was a decade too late to really capitalize on a new terminal, but I hope KC is able to overcome it somehow and get that airport up around 20-30 million passengers a year.

[KCPowercat]

Yes, I know. It's all good. Nothing wrong with that.

But it's also good to be honest about reality sometimes or you leave little reason to actually improve.

To be honest I don’t know what the new KCI will be like compared to other airports because I haven’t been in new KCI yet, however I genuinely believe no matter what as long as we have a solid good airport we’re fine. For airports, I think as long as you hit a certain threshold, then you’re set, and getting “more amenities” at an airport at that point isn’t gonna impact thing that much more.

The problem is we hadn’t even been hitting the threshold.

I agree as far as the airport. That's why I'm fine and actually excited about the new KCI. It will be a game changer for KC.

A fancy terminal wouldn't really change that. It's just something I would have liked to see, but if it's not possible, that's fine. More important, can the terminal be expanded (by more than just a few gates) or can another terminal be built if KCI ever does get past being just a regional airport?

I do think KC was a decade too late to really capitalize on a new terminal, but I hope KC is able to overcome it somehow and get that airport up around 20-30 million passengers a year.

Yes, terminal C land would be available for another terminal if needed. Probably can't expand the current building by much more due to runway/taxi locations.

[GRID]

To be honest I don’t know what the new KCI will be like compared to other airports because I haven’t been in new KCI yet, however I genuinely believe no matter what as long as we have a solid good airport we’re fine. For airports, I think as long as you hit a certain threshold, then you’re set, and getting “more amenities” at an airport at that point isn’t gonna impact thing that much more.

The problem is we hadn’t even been hitting the threshold.

I agree as far as the airport. That's why I'm fine and actually excited about the new KCI. It will be a game changer for KC.

A fancy terminal wouldn't really change that. It's just something I would have liked to see, but if it's not possible, that's fine. More important, can the terminal be expanded (by more than just a few gates) or can another terminal be built if KCI ever does get past being just a regional airport?

I do think KC was a decade too late to really capitalize on a new terminal, but I hope KC is able to overcome it somehow and get that airport up around 20-30 million passengers a year.

Yes, terminal C land would be available for another terminal if needed. Probably can't expand the current building by much more due to runway/taxi locations.

Yeah, I know they have the room, I mean more the "desire" and "will". I think KC is really good at status quo, so once the new terminal is built, it will be a challenge to keep the foot on the gas pedal with making KCI a more relevant American airport. KCI can easily be a much much busier airport. It's way under capacity with three runways and can easily build a fourth and has a massive regional population to pull from.

Hopefully the traveling public and the airlines like the new terminal and KCI starts seeing a major increase in interest from all the airlines.

[KCPowercat]

Yeah let's hope this is our gateway to a lot more air traffic. Like you said the opportunity is there.

[normalthings]

I travel a lot, and airports are very functional. I almost can’t describe any airport that I’ve been in.

I actually think our new terminal is more clever than most with the city market concept.

So far I’m a fan of the art too.

I think it’s time to let the “ it’s basic af” criticism go. It’s going to be a nice airport by us standards.

The problem is that it's not $1,000,000,000+ nice.. which is its price tag. Why are we paying over a billion dollars for a basic, economic, small airport? That's the criticism. We should be getting something substantially nicer.

New Orleans is the most recent mid-sized city terminal opened. $1.3 billion and 35 gates. I don’t think they had to worry at all about demoing existing buildings or adding in all new temporary utilities. The state also covered the cost of roadways, etc separate. NoLa is also tourism driven airport.

It absolutely crushes new KCI in some areas, ceiling heights and some finishes. But I think they put too much focus on areas before security and not enough on areas past. Our terminal will be a lot easier to expand before and after security.

They covered too much ceiling in white ACT which does not look nearly as nice as our light wood will. Every drop off and pick up lane at KCI will be protected from rain/snow which is really rare at our peer airports.

I am jealous of their new terminal but I think ours is set up a lot better to become a focus city or connecting operation for an airline in the future. I value that a lot more. Our new terminal can be expanded to 42 gates immediately and 50 given a little more time but in a straight forward manner. NoLa and IND don’t have that luxury.


TLDR; We had to demo and rebuild a lot more than our peers and we built big bones that can be expanded on easily, something they don’t have. Look at Southwest’s hub airports in the US, they look a lot more like new KCI than they do IND or NoLa

[KCPowercat]

MSY is much nicer architecture wise no doubt.

[langosta]

Southwest will move their Saint Louis hub to KC. Mark my words. My least favorite airport to connect through.

[earthling]

^Payback for when TWA moved to STL mwahahahaaa, but it ultimately was a KC mishap even though you can't really point blame to one source. It wasn't JoCo's fault haha, just unfortunate circumstances.

[langosta]

^Payback for when TWA moved to STL mwahahahaaa, but it ultimately was a KC mishap even though you can't really point blame to one source. It wasn't JoCo's fault haha, just unfortunate circumstances.

KC took too long to build new airport and when they did build they build a bad design (mix of city and airline fault). KC should have started a replacement for municipal in the 50s

[earthling]

^Agree. KC was a major center of cross-continental rail passenger traffic with 200 trains a day into Union Station. As airline traffic took away rail traffic, KC could've maintained high status if they did the airport right shortly after. Blew the opportunity but TWA kinda messed up too with their input. Eventual security rules ruined the new airport design, final nail into coffin. But yeah, should've happened much sooner, right after rail passenger traffic was being overtaken by air. Maybe MSP wouldn't have taken off in 60s if KC had a more dominate airport. Some will somehow find a way to blame JoCo nevertheless. &&