Why did TWA leave KC for St Louis (Kansas City, Washington: 2013, home)

[lovekcmo]

I've always wondered why TWA left KCI for St Louis when TWA was initially and originally based in Kansas City and New York and had no ties or connections with St Louis.

[kcmo]

Because TWA wanted the city to rebuild the terminals after moving from MKC to MCI and quickly realizing that it was the worst design ever for a hub.

TWA is who pressured the city to build the "drive to your gate" terminals in the first place. After just building the terminals and spending a ton of money, the city refused and TWA took off to St Louis.

Pretty messed up actually. Funny thing is that the city knew when the airport opened it was a failed design even pre 9-11 and TWA leaving (and many other airlines trying to build a strong hub or presence in KC and begging the city to do something different from Braniff to Southwest today)

Here it is nearly 2013 and the airport is worse now than it was in 1972 and KCI has missed many boats to be one of the premier airports in the middle part of the country because of it. But so long as joe blow KC resident doesn't have to walk more than 100 feet, everybody there thinks KCI is great.

It's one of the worst airports in the country and most frequent flyers and airline employees know it. I didn't even like it as a home airport and would never connect there.

KC is missing the Southwest boat now. They have basically already moved on to other cities and kept KC stagnant when at one time they were going to do much more with MCI.

KC could have been a much bigger part of their system.

It sucks that TWA left and I can see why the city refused to accommodate them at the time. But again, that proved they needed to do something with the terminals pretty quick and they just never did. MCI could have easily been a DIA or SLC or MSP due to the central location and incredible size of the property. KC dropped the ball big time.

I would be thrilled to just have a decent bathroom to use while waiting for a flight there, let alone the ability to buy a slice of pizza or god forbid have more non stop flights.

[lovekcmo]

That makes sense-and what a shame and waste of 40 years on Kansas City's part. It's bugged me that St Louis have always acted like TWA was created by St Louis for St Louis and had they don't seem to know that the historical connection for TWA was with Kansas City and not St Louis.

[lovekcmo]

I wonder why Kansas City officials don't empty out one terminal and make an entire terminal available to Southwest. Southwest has been growing at most all of their midwest airports except for Kansas City.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

I wonder why Kansas City officials don't empty out one terminal and make an entire terminal available to Southwest. Southwest has been growing at most all of their midwest airports except for Kansas City.

Wouldn't make any difference, the same issues that southwest and most of it customers hate would still be there. That's basically how it is now anyway. Terminal B is full and overcrowded and the other two are ghost towns.

[kcmo]

This is a nice summary of KCI's history and the problems it faces:

Hidden problems cause headaches for airlines at KCI - KSHB.com - Kansas CIty

The Kansas City International Airport was designed to be traveler friendly. During the design phase, Trans World Airlines pushed the city council to adopt the “drive to your gate” design.

The first threats of terrorism made the very concept KCI was built on obsolete. In December of 1972, the FAA began requiring passengers be screened before boarding planes

At Terminal B, the line of business travelers backs up every morning around 5 a.m. Hundreds of passengers need screening, but there isn’t enough room to add more security checkpoints.

Terminal B is also the only terminal that has the ability and equipment to handle larger planes. All of the larger airplanes land at that terminal which means more passengers come to Terminal B. That means parking also fills up faster.

Aviation Director Mark VanLoh said he often has people tell him to move flights to Terminal A or C. He said those two terminals simply aren’t equipped to handle the passenger loads on larger aircraft.

However, he said what is really restricting the airport is the baggage system below. The airport doesn’t have a centralized baggage system that would allow carriers to quickly change baggage from one airline to another.

VanLoh said some airlines have expressed interest in adding flights but there is no more room at Terminal B for larger aircrafts.

Some airlines want to avoid the hassle of routing passengers through KCI which is not conducive to layovers or for airlines trying to move baggage between flights.

For instance, last year Southwest wanted to add a direct flight from Kansas City to Washington D.C. The airline ended up adding that route to Saint Louis instead.

He said other airlines have decided to take their flights to more convenient airports that have less overhead.

“Just the cost to operate three terminals separately: it is hundreds of thousands of dollars for each terminal for extra security costs which they have to pay for. The airlines have to pay for everything. Taxpayers don't (pay for those costs),” said VanLoh, who added that airlines at KCI are paying for more than 500 security screeners because of the individual gate design.

That is more than Newark Airport which has far more passengers than KCI.

“We have been a hub for many, many airlines for 40 years but none of them have made it here because you can't move people, planes and baggage around very conveniently.

City council has already approved two master plans which include a single terminal for KCI. As no local taxpayer money will be required, local voters will not have a say on a new terminal. However, city council must give a final OK to any contracts.

Kansas City could have a new single terminal within the next five years.

[brewcrew1000]

Why can't they just get rid of the walls and just make the whole terminal a secured area.

[aragx6]

^So you'd have to wait outside, often in the cold, to get through security? No thank you.

[brewcrew1000]

^Just create the ticketing and security at the parts of the terminal where there are large gaps. There are plenty of parts of each terminal that are ghost towns

[lovekcmo]

I don't understand the situation that Terminal B is the only terminal that can handle larger planes? The largest panes flying there are only 737's aren't they? That's all that Southwest airlines flies. Eastern Airlines used Terminal A when they were "Big" here and they fly some widebodies A320 or A330 from Terminal A, those are larger than anything flying out of Terminal B. Aren' all the three terminals built exacataly alike? The terminal design is totally worthless for the airlines I understand and it's just not a workable or useable airport in the 21st century, but it just seems like there should be a way to make one of the terminals, and they have what 30 gates each terminal, for an airline to use.