OFFICIAL - New KCI Terminal

[KCPowercat]

I really like the neon vertical Kansas City on departures level. I worry few will see that given your attention is basically the other direction the entire departure process.

[Sani]

Speaking of a potential APM and new economy lot, are there any preliminary plans or documents that might show where the APM would go?

[KCPowercat]

There was a rough map floating around at one point. It basically went from the north end of the new headhouse to the east to hit that now bare lot south of the rental car facility and then onto that facility. I'd assume for the economy lots there would still be buses circulating w/in the lot itself.

[smh]

I suppose cabs probably are dead in KC for the most part which is too bad. But Uber sucks. At a minimum folks should advocate for a set fare from KCI to Downtown.

[smh]

Ii think the tweak is just put some taxi at the curb versus having a traveler have to call one. I'm shocked Bill George didn't get a little better setup.

It's a tiny thing though. I'm also totally fine with one pickup dropoff for economy and rental car and other offsite. We don't have enough traffic or big enough airport to need two. It would make it more inefficient.

Agreed. Don't sleep on the convenience of walking up to a cab, getting in, and being on your way rather than staring at the app watching Billy from Excelsior in his Dodge Charger spend 10 minutes driving from I-29 into the pickup area. And then he wants to chat about where you're coming from the entire ride to downtown. I mean, sometimes that is nice but sometimes...I just wish there was a better bus/train option.

[kcjak]

I suppose cabs probably are dead in KC for the most part which is too bad. But Uber sucks. At a minimum folks should advocate for a set fare from KCI to Downtown.

The last two times I took a cab from the Westin to my home in Volker the drivers assumed I was from out of town and tried taking me the long way to get extra fare...one down Gilham to the Plaza and one down SW Blvd. I can only imagine how many people got screwed coming from KCI.

[KCPowercat]

As you remember our cab service was always so bad anyways. Perfect target for rideshare to kill off.

Agreed though cabs are a nice option at airports and they are still up there today waiting so why not give them a few waiting right at the curb for that opion.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Surely, 20 minutes for economy parking headways is just the low-end 3am-ish service, right? There's no way one bus every 20 minutes during a busy part of the day would possibly be able to handle things. They come more often than that now, carry half as many people as they will moving forward and are often packed.

[bspecht]

Agreed. Don't sleep on the convenience of walking up to a cab, getting in, and being on your way

Cosign. Taxis are above rideshare in my preference order for leaving most airports. Hope new terminal has them waiting.

[GRID]

Surely, 20 minutes for economy parking headways is just the low-end 3am-ish service, right? There's no way one bus every 20 minutes during a busy part of the day would possibly be able to handle things. They come more often than that now, carry half as many people as they will moving forward and are often packed.

Thank you! That was the main thing that triggered all my posts.

Those little blue buses used to run to three different lots from three different terminals when I used them meaning they carried a third of the volume per route. And they were still packed especially with those little buses during busy times or when they ran infrequently at night. Now they will carry the entire load of economy parking traffic on one route every 20 minutes? Even every ten minutes with those buses serving the entire lot will be hard to pull off.

From the looks of things people have stopped using the economy parking lots. Looking at google they can barely fill one lot now compared to when when I used them and all three lots were always 2/3 full. That is a logistics fail by the airport. There is a market for it, but they can't seem to figure out how to deliver quality service so people have found other options.

It looks like the logistics of the new buses won't be a lot better. I compare MCI to BWI because they have similar operation that is very well run at BWI with full size buses that go to multiple lots (so the routes are not so long). They drop off and pick up at the departing and arriving levels etc. Why would MCI not figure out how to make economy parking work well so people will use it. That's revenue they are missing out on.

I don't use economy parking at MCI anymore, but the rental car buses have the same issues. Not enough buses. If you can't find drivers then purchase articulated buses at least. Don't make people wait 30 min or more or have full buses pass them by (has happened to me last three times at MCI).

And I still think not having even a small cab stand is stupid. Cabs are still very much an option at most large airports and a lot of people actually avoid Uber. Not to mention it's nice to just have a cab at the curb vs arranging an uber and dealing with the chaos of figuring out which urber is yours. But if KC has no cabs left then I guess they can't provide that service.

That's all I'm saying. The new terminal is great otherwise. My biggest concern now about the terminal is will it have enough traffic to sustain all the new retail. MCI is going from having nothing to having probably twice as much as similar volume airports. I really hope this leads to more flights. The new terminal is really nice (as far as amenities).

[TheUrbanRoo]

As soon as this open next week we must begin the push for the APM

[GRID]

Pretty comprehensive video of new terminal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXe4-r409rI

[smh]

As soon as this open next week we must begin the push for the APM

Agreed but have it head south 20 miles instead of north to the parking lots. :-0

(jkjk)

[KCPowercat]

BWI has 60% more passengers than MCI. I understand you know those two the best Grid but they aren't really same league to compare operationally.

[alejandro46]

As soon as this open next week we must begin the push for the APM

Agreed but have it head south 20 miles instead of north to the parking lots. :-0

(jkjk)

I'm not kidding though. We at least need to plan to connect an APM to a potential transit or Tram Train type streetcar stop within the next 30 years.

[FlippantCitizen]

I'm also a taxi fan. Almost always opted for the cab stand when flying into NYC when I lived there rather than Uber. Got stuck with insane surge/inflated prices with Uber several times over the holidays and used Z-trip as an alternative and was rewarded with a much better price. Keeping a taxi industry competitive in cities should be of concern to to municipal governments. Allowing a duopoly of Uber and Lyft is not good. Byzantine regulations resulted in noncompetitive taxi monopolies in many cities which was exactly why ride share was so disruptive and adopted so vigorously. Now that Uber and Lyft have a stranglehold on taxi services in many cities we are left with the same problem, a noncompetitive industry that is often failing to serve customers or gouging them. This is a little off topic but my point here is, if there was a convenient taxi stand at the new KCI, I would be a user.

[beautyfromashes]

Pretty comprehensive video of new terminal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXe4-r409rI

You're such an airport hype machine.

[GRID]

I'm also a taxi fan. Almost always opted for the cab stand when flying into NYC when I lived there rather than Uber. Got stuck with insane surge/inflated prices with Uber several times over the holidays and used Z-trip as an alternative and was rewarded with a much better price. Keeping a taxi industry competitive in cities should be of concern to to municipal governments. Allowing a duopoly of Uber and Lyft is not good. Byzantine regulations resulted in noncompetitive taxi monopolies in many cities which was exactly why ride share was so disruptive and adopted so vigorously. Now that Uber and Lyft have a stranglehold on taxi services in many cities we are left with the same problem, a noncompetitive industry that is often failing to serve customers or gouging them. This is a little off topic but my point here is, if there was a convenient taxi stand at the new KCI, I would be a user.

Also taxi fares from airports are typically heavily regulated. Uber is the wild west now.

[GRID]

Pretty comprehensive video of new terminal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXe4-r409rI

You're such an airport hype machine.

What does that even mean? Sarcasm? I don't think you understand how happy I am that KC is finally getting a new terminal. The current terminals have been embarrassing to KC for decades. It's literally depressing to fly into and out of KC. Just because I criticize things does not mean I'm not supportive of it at the same time.

[GRID]

BWI has 60% more passengers than MCI. I understand you know those two the best Grid but they aren't really same league to compare operationally.

So? The logistics are the same if on a smaller scale. And BWI has shuttles to an 8000 space garage off site plus shuttles to the MARC/Amtrak Station and Light Rail that directly serves the airport. So the amount of people using economy parking might be closer to KCI than you think.