Kansas City Airport's Future: Good Things on the Way (Springfield: buy, theater)

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by westender

It might be simpler to have Johnson County build out its New Century airport in Gardner into a true passenger terminal. It would take the recurring problem of managing MCI off of the city's hands, and the new location would align with the growth of the area, toward the south and west.

I'd also bet that JoCo would do a large bond issue for a new regional airport without batting an eye because of the promise of future revenue.

Yea, that's just what KC needs. "TWO" stupid podunk airport terminals 75 miles apart.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by westender

...and that area is still rural enough to avoid ruffling the NIMBYs.

It will never happen. It will stay as an intermodal hub airport like it should be... Gardner will never support anything other than that anyway

[westender]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Yea, that's just what KC needs. "TWO" stupid podunk airport terminals 75 miles apart.

True, but if JoCo even hinted at this, it might motivate KCMO to act in a more urgent manner to modernize MCI.

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by westender

True, but if JoCo even hinted at this, it might motivate KCMO to act in a more urgent manner to modernize MCI.

Except that there simply is no urgency.

J.D. Power and Associates

Kansas City International (MCI) ranks highest among medium airports, and performs particularly well in three of the six factors: airport accessibility, check-in/baggage check and security check.

The negativity underlying the perpetual drumbeat of KCI bashing here is simply not the viewpoint of the public at large. More people see KCI's unique and yes, modern, design as a plus and not a minus.

It's funny how seldom some who claim to "lovekcmo" have much positive to say about it or the people who call it home.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by westender

True, but if JoCo even hinted at this, it might motivate KCMO to act in a more urgent manner to modernize MCI.

They more than hinted at the idea back in the early 1990's. They tried to bring commercial service to New Century and quickly realized that there was zero interest by the airlines. Just like building a large convention center in OP would be a waste of money and would only hurt the primary convention center of the metro in a metro the size of KC, building a second airport in a metro the size of KC would be asinine. Johnson County is a large suburb, but it's not near as big time as those out there would like to think. But yea, they did try and tried pretty hard.

BTW, the Northland is growing about the same rate as JoCo now, so while KCI was way out there 20 years ago, it’s now just a few miles from built up suburbia and it’s only 20 minutes from downtown. If you fly a lot, don’t live at 159th and Nall and if you do move there, don’t ***** about how far away the airport is.

Nearly everybody I know that flies out of KCI on a regular basis hates it, including most locals. So while these repeat users don’t like it much, a lot oft people that fly out of KCI probably fly fairly infrequently and I have noticed the demographics that fly out of KCI to be more rural in nature. Before some of you go off on me for saying that, count to five and think about who KCI serves. A HUGE rural area in addition to KC. I think a lot of those people are intimidated by larger terminals, people movers etc and they like the small town feel of KCI. People that fly once every five years to some mega hub seem to love KCI while people that fly twice a week and have been to most airports hate it. I know there are exceptions.

Business travelers do not like it for the most part and the current design is keeping airlines from expanding as much as they could and adding flights to the KC market which is ironic since the airport is half vacant except the crowed little gate area you are trapped in.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

It's funny how seldom some who claim to "lovekcmo" have much positive to say about it or the people who call it home.

Seriously, this again?

It's people like me that have helped get KC to change things. Sure, I'm passionate about the airport. Why? Because I love KC and I honestly think KCI is one of the things that keeps KC from rising to a higher level. That's fine if you don't think this, so tell your points without the backhanded comments directed at me or others personally and no, I’m not the member lovekcmo.

I was going through some old stuff just yesterday and found a stash of articles that I had saved of me writing letters to the KC Star (many of them actual guest columns). I was basically begging KC to do something with Downtown and in many of them, I was extremely hard on KC, but it had to be said. KC’s downtown was a disgrace at the time. There were still PLENTY of people in KC that had no problems with downtown though. They just didn’t see what was wrong with it. Most had never visited Denver or Seattle or Boston and if they did, they just thought KC could never have a nice downtown like those places.

I was so freaking involved with making KC a better place at the time because as much as I loved KC, I couldn’t wait to get out of the city because the urban core was so blightend and so many people in KC just didn’t care. Things finally started turning around about the time union station was renovated and has continued to improve since, but KC still needs lots of constructive criticism in some areas.

During that time, I was close people like Mayor Barnes, City manager Wayne Cauthen and was volunteering countless hours to help push and promote every possible civic improvement I could find time to support.

I am not ashamed to say it was people like me that turned KCMO around in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and had to go against the grain to do so. The airport is just another example of this.

It doesn’t mean I hate KC or anything like that, quite the opposite. I care enough to not step down off my soapbox on certain issues. Yea, KCI’s terminal is a problem, as is the lack of transit, and the poaching across state line and all that stuff. I could ignore those like most people do, but I don’t and if enough people choose not to ignore things, changes eventually happen.

At the same time though, I will promote KC’s positives and do it all the time all over this forum, something I’m not sure I can say about you or some of the other Johnny come lately kcmo “supporters” that don’t like my style…

Here is a "positive" post about KC I posted just this morning. Although I'm sure somebody will find something negative about it.

Kansas City, MO vs San Jose, CA

But if you read that post, you will see another reason why KCI should be so much more than it is. KC's location is perfect for a much better connected airport and because KC loves its dumb 1960's terminals, it's not able to take better advantage of its location and become a bigger player in the aviation network.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

Except that there simply is no urgency.

J.D. Power and Associates
The negativity underlying the perpetual drumbeat of KCI bashing here is simply not the viewpoint of the public at large. More people see KCI's unique and yes, modern, design as a plus and not a minus.

It's funny how seldom some who claim to "lovekcmo" have much positive to say about it or the people who call it home.

Really? Because people like being locked in a pen and paying $10 for a stale sandwich? I heard other people complaining while I waited in the "pen" for over an hour. The airport doesn't work well, simple as that!

[xenokc]

It's most of the locals who like the airport, not those traveling through. I don't like the airport as is today but understand how it came to this so don't bother bitching about it because the bottom line is, KCI is looking to replace it and the FAA is willing to pay for almost all of it.

The haters will have to hate for another 10 years cause it will take that long to open. Hate all you want at a brick wall... the FAA isn't listening. They aren't doing this because some travelers hate KCI, it's because they don't like KCI's setup.

[lovekcmo]

search all you want about kci , you will find plenty and plenty of people who hate it and make good points about why they hate it. It hurts the city more than anything else in that it never paid off the way the city thought it would 40 years ago.

[xenokc]

I agree, there are many who dislike it for good reasons and I've posted what I don't like either. Now something is being done about it. Shouldn't there now be praise that's something is in the works? At least from the haters.

Irony is, the haters are getting what they want and the likers don't want the change. The likers will quickly adapt and KCI will be better off in the end, especially if it helps attract business.

Sometimes there can be a solution that appeases the majority. At least something is happening now.