A step closer to a new KCI terminal? (Memphis, Rea: parking, best)

[brooksider2brooklyn]

Wow Southwest will pay for a terminal AND they say they purposely "throttle down" kci because it's so bad and people still want to keep that junky terminal?

So because some people "think" kci is an efficient, functioning airport (highly debatable) people will vote against an opportunity to improve an aging and deteriorating terminal that will likely help the city get more flights and businesses? Also turning down a billion dollar economic project not funded with taxes?

Yep same old KC run by same bunch of conservative stubborn grumpy status quo population. And people here think Pittsburgh is bad. Lol

[94buickcentury]

Originally Posted by brooksider2brooklyn

Wow Southwest will pay for a terminal AND they say they purposely "throttle down" kci because it's so bad and people still want to keep that junky terminal?

So because some people "think" kci is an efficient, functioning airport (highly debatable) people will vote against an opportunity to improve an aging and deteriorating terminal that will likely help the city get more flights and businesses? Also turning down a billion dollar economic project not funded with taxes?

Yep same old KC run by same bunch of conservative stubborn grumpy status quo population. And people here think Pittsburgh is bad. Lol

Change is always good. Like you said, Southwest is paying for all of it and won't come out of the taxpayer money on it. So it won't effect those that won't use the airport which makes sense. Besides, I thought they propose a design that is going to keep the convienance of walking directly to a terminal. Is that still the plan? If they retain that convienance, got no problem with it.

Airlines to Kansas City: Get on board for new KCI single terminal | The Kansas City Star

[nycrite]

Originally Posted by luzianne

Right now NONE of the circle lots are full. And it's a weekday between 8 am and 5 pm.

I would expect the circle lots to offer some spots by Friday afternoon, which is when you posted. Weekday mornings are the most crucial time periods for business travelers, especially the beginning of the week.

Maybe I was unlucky last Wednesday, but when I checked Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, both B circle lots were full. Garage B was 40 spots shy of being full at 6:00 am Wednesday morning. By the time I parked and cleared security, garage B became full. That means travelers using terminal B after 7:30 am Wednesday morning were offered zero convenience. For those expecting convenient parking, they instead must drive away from the terminal to the Parking Spot or long term economy. Alternatively, they could pay even more than garage rates for valet parking. Had I befallen the fate of inconvenient parking, I probably would have made my flight, because the security lines were tiny.

Parking and other amenities aside, there aren't enough flights to sustain three terminals. Flight volume is below capacity at KCI. What's smarter: let excess capacity sit idle or re-purpose it into something useful? From an operations and financial standpoint, you'd be crazy to pay for idle excess capacity (terminal A), unless you know it's a temporary blip. With airlines rightly diverting connections away from KC, this is hardly a blip. It could be 5, 10, or 20 years from now, but KC will eventually *have to* understand that an underutilized airport is financially irresponsible. What if terminal C closed? Would KCI still be a convenient and "fine the way it is" airport? Perhaps it will take another mothballed terminal to convince KC to consider a modern airport.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by nycrite

I would expect the circle lots to offer some spots by Friday afternoon, which is when you posted. Weekday mornings are the most crucial time periods for business travelers, especially the beginning of the week.

Maybe I was unlucky last Wednesday, but when I checked Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, both B circle lots were full. Garage B was 40 spots shy of being full at 6:00 am Wednesday morning. By the time I parked and cleared security, garage B became full. That means travelers using terminal B after 7:30 am Wednesday morning were offered zero convenience. For those expecting convenient parking, they instead must drive away from the terminal to the Parking Spot or long term economy. Alternatively, they could pay even more than garage rates for valet parking. Had I befallen the fate of inconvenient parking, I probably would have made my flight, because the security lines were tiny.

Parking and other amenities aside, there aren't enough flights to sustain three terminals. Flight volume is below capacity at KCI. What's smarter: let excess capacity sit idle or re-purpose it into something useful? From an operations and financial standpoint, you'd be crazy to pay for idle excess capacity (terminal A), unless you know it's a temporary blip. With airlines rightly diverting connections away from KC, this is hardly a blip. It could be 5, 10, or 20 years from now, but KC will eventually *have to* understand that an underutilized airport is financially irresponsible. What if terminal C closed? Would KCI still be a convenient and "fine the way it is" airport? Perhaps it will take another mothballed terminal to convince KC to consider a modern airport.

KCI has way too many gates spread across too many terminals and so 1/3 of the airport is unused. At the same time, Southwest is generally maxed out at KCI and can't add many flights even if they wanted to. If that doesn't show that the existing setup at the airport is a huge FAIL, then I don't know what other proof is needed.

Right now Southwest only adds the bare minimum flights that KC alone can support (O/D) rather than any additional flights that would benefit KC, but would require connections for the flights to make sense to Southwest. Southwest has stated and it's pretty obvious that they are not adding flights to KCI if they will have a lot of connecting passengers. Southwest customers outside of KC will not connect through KCI, at least not after doing it once.

So while KCI will probably never need 90 gates, ever. The gates they are using are crowed and often over capacity.

[lovekcmo]

Originally Posted by brooksider2brooklyn

Wow Southwest will pay for a terminal AND they say they purposely "throttle down" kci because it's so bad and people still want to keep that junky terminal?

So because some people "think" kci is an efficient, functioning airport (highly debatable) people will vote against an opportunity to improve an aging and deteriorating terminal that will likely help the city get more flights and businesses? Also turning down a billion dollar economic project not funded with taxes?

Yep same old KC run by same bunch of conservative stubborn grumpy status quo population. And people here think Pittsburgh is bad. Lol

Kansas City isn't run ( i don't believe, or would say) by any conservatives anymore. It's more of the liberal and intellectuals mental midget minded folks who just don't care about anything other than their own "liberal" I would say agendas. Conservatives in KC? Not anymore.

[lovekcmo]

My last flight at KCI two weeks ago. I sat next to a couple and we were talking about how crappy KCI is. They told me that they purposely move slowly through security, leave coins in their pockets, etc. All to slow down the system to inconvenience people in the wait lines, just to aggravate people towards KCI in the hopes that KCI will be redone.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

My last flight at KCI two weeks ago. I sat next to a couple and we were talking about how crappy KCI is. They told me that they purposely move slowly through security, leave coins in their pockets, etc. All to slow down the system to inconvenience people in the wait lines, just to aggravate people towards KCI in the hopes that KCI will be redone.

How mature.

[nycrite]

Originally Posted by kcmo

KCI has way too many gates spread across too many terminals and so 1/3 of the airport is unused. At the same time, Southwest is generally maxed out at KCI and can't add many flights even if they wanted to. If that doesn't show that the existing setup at the airport is a huge FAIL, then I don't know what other proof is needed.

Right now Southwest only adds the bare minimum flights that KC alone can support (O/D) rather than any additional flights that would benefit KC, but would require connections for the flights to make sense to Southwest. Southwest has stated and it's pretty obvious that they are not adding flights to KCI if they will have a lot of connecting passengers. Southwest customers outside of KC will not connect through KCI, at least not after doing it once.

So while KCI will probably never need 90 gates, ever. The gates they are using are crowed and often over capacity.

An under capacity airport that cannot balance demand is the definition of a flawed design. I'm curious to see what the business community comes up with now that Mayor Sly James passed the baton to them.

I frequented Dallas Love before and after its new terminal opened. It was a night and day difference. Since I only connected through Love Field, I cannot speak to its parking, checkpoint, departure, or arrival convenience. The layover experience was pleasant in the new terminal and a claustrophobic nightmare in the old one. I can only imagine similar sentiments for today's KCI layover victims. Luckily, with reduced connections in KCI, more souls will be spared a KCI layover.

[nycrite]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

My last flight at KCI two weeks ago. I sat next to a couple and we were talking about how crappy KCI is. They told me that they purposely move slowly through security, leave coins in their pockets, etc. All to slow down the system to inconvenience people in the wait lines, just to aggravate people towards KCI in the hopes that KCI will be redone.

Ugh...

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

I sat next to a couple and we were talking about how crappy KCI is. They told me that they purposely move slowly through security, leave coins in their pockets, etc. All to slow down the system to inconvenience people in the wait lines, just to aggravate people towards KCI in the hopes that KCI will be redone.

Cool story, bro.