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I think that might make a fascinating story should she ever decide to share it with anyone.
It's mostly the same as what is on TWA/KCI wikipedia page. She know of names of old, probably dead TWA executives and KC officials and the argument. KCI was a futuristic design 50 years ago and was dead on arrival once it opened. TWA didn't have the commitment financially to KC 50 years ago that hub/headquarter airlines do to their cities now. I can see both TWA and KCs position on the airport once it was opened. KC probably should have worked harder to keep/please TWA with updating/redesigning the airport, but this was all before deregulation. KC did screw itself and it's residents 30 years ago by not addressing the issues/problems of how KCI was designed and built and now we are with a one billion plus terminal that will be a nice airport but not the terminal that could have transformed KC into the likes of Denver or MSP. KC has no nonstop flights to cities like Omaha, Des Moines, Wichita, Little Rock, etc. There really are no airlines left to ever make KC a hub, the most we can hope for is that Southwest might build up to 90-100 flights a day and play second fiddle to St Louis with Southwest. We might be lucky enough to have larger body planes flying in, but they will still be flights to Denver, Chicago, DFW, MSP, etc.
Part of the problem too is how the airline industry has changed. I mean if KC still had Midwest Express around then you might have really seen a boost in service to those more local markets. One thing people have to remember though when KCI was built the country was in a transportation transition. The country was going from mostly a country of rail travel to a nation relying on aviation and the interstate. KC was a huge passenger rail hub well into the 1960s where as many other cities had started the transition away from rail in the late 1950s. I believe that this slower transition actually also hurt KC. Though the highway system recovered nicely.
And it's really such a waste. KCI has THREE long runways. It's probably the best location for a major airport in the central part of the country. KC is by far the closest big city to the geographic center of the country and it's not nearly as isolated as hubs out west like DEN and SLC, so KC has a regional local draw of millions of passengers. People from Omaha to Des Moines, to Tulsa should be flying or driving to KCI for international flights and flights to the coasts.
Instead, KCI has a ton of flights to Denver, DFW, Chicago etc. So the airlines basically treat the KC market pretty much the same as Omaha etc.
With all that capacity of three runways, room for a proper new terminal etc, KC has really dropped the ball with the airport and the new terminal, while a massive improvement, seems to continue that trend.
If you think about why cities like Denver and MSP blew past KC in the past 30 years, the airport has to be one of the reasons to look at.
I still say the main reason KC lost so much ground is the state line though. Even today. Way too much of KC's economy is based in suburban Kansas which has really weakened the core of the city when compared to peer cities. KC has no central regional focal point. It's a city being pulled in many directions and competition is so fierce locally, that the metro has not been able to even think about competing with other metros.
KCMO has spent the last 40 year fighting off Overland Park. While that fight might be finally coming to an end or at least mitigated, the damage done to the entire metro has been significant.
The 2004 renovation (and to a lesser extent 2007) was a huge mistake. KCI had been obsolete for years and the city listened to a vocal minority and put lipstick on a pig rather than building a new terminal. A Powers Report in that time frame giving KCI a positive review (what the hell were they thinking?) didn't help matters and only served breathed new life into one of the nation's most dysfunctional airports. After the renovations, replacing the obsolete terminals was impossible for more than another decade.
When the city finally got around to facing up to the fact that a new terminal must be built, fear of the vocal minority again intervened and drove the city to pursue cheap solutions resulting in the acceptable but hardly optimal present design. It was an uphill battle convincing residents that tax money was not going to be used to fund construction and anything over a billion dollars was scorned by the city with fears that voters would never approve. Kind of an absurd set of events fostered by nonsensical laws requiring a vote. I'm happy the terminal was easily approved (I guess enough people had been to KCI to know it was a truly a disaster) but I fear another missed opportunity here by doing it all on the cheap.
The 2004 renovation (and to a lesser extent 2007) was a huge mistake. KCI had been obsolete for years and the city listened to a vocal minority and put lipstick on a pig rather than building a new terminal. A Powers Report in that time frame giving KCI a positive review (what the hell were they thinking?) didn't help matters and only served breathed new life into one of the nation's most dysfunctional airports. After the renovations, replacing the obsolete terminals was impossible for more than another decade.
When the city finally got around to facing up to the fact that a new terminal must be built, fear of the vocal minority again intervened and drove the city to pursue cheap solutions resulting in the acceptable but hardly optimal present design. It was an uphill battle convincing residents that tax money was not going to be used to fund construction and anything over a billion dollars was scorned by the city with fears that voters would never approve. Kind of an absurd set of events fostered by nonsensical laws requiring a vote. I'm happy the terminal was easily approved (I guess enough people had been to KCI to know it was a truly a disaster) but I fear another missed opportunity here by doing it all on the cheap.
Agree! The "renovations" weren't even a bandaid on the current airport terminals. 30 years ago, KC should have bit the bullet and built a new terminal, would have been so much cheaper than now and would have had situated KC better for flights/airlines. What we are getting is a bigger terminal than Springfield or Wichita's new terminals. Emmanuel Cleaver in the early 1990's could have built a better legacy for himself if he had pushed for a new terminal and light rail, which KC could have had light rail like Denver's and St Louis now because the funding was available for KC.
The Kansas City catchment isn't as much as it once was I believe. Omaha, Des Moines, Wichita have non stop Southwest flights to St Louis, none of those cities have flights to KC. I believe it's easier and as cost effective for residents of Omaha, Des Moines, Wichita to fly non stop on Southwest through St Louis than to drive to KC, park, etc and fly out of KC to cities then they could fly out one stop through St Louis. Just another way that Kansas City missed the boat with MCI/KCI.
i just got back from a Southwest flight and waiting bus while smoking. Pilot of my flight was smoking with me and we chatted about the new terminal. He told me that about 15 years ago Southwest was interested in KCI being built up to 150+ flights but time had past and now plans were probably 80-90 flights with St Louis and Nashville being the future foucus.
i just got back from a Southwest flight and waiting bus while smoking. Pilot of my flight was smoking with me and we chatted about the new terminal. He told me that about 15 years ago Southwest was interested in KCI being built up to 150+ flights but time had past and now plans were probably 80-90 flights with St Louis and Nashville being the future foucus.
I had talked to people in the airline industry about this during that time. I was screaming for KC to build a new terminal or Southwest is going to change their plans for KC. Sure enough, they did. Denver and St Louis pretty much took most connecting type flights that KC was going to get and KC will probably never be a major candidate again for such a large SW presence. The airline is now too established elsewhere.
KCI basically functions like a bigger version of Omaha or OKC. Nearly all flights from KC run through DEN, DFW, Chicago etc. Few flights go direct to non hubs. The new terminal is so bare bones that I don't see things changing a whole lot. The new terminal was not built for the "future" like you see most cities do with then build a brand new terminal. It's basically just better than it was before. For a city the size of KC to build a proper terminal for the next 50 years to handle 20-30 million passengers a year, which could have been very possible, a new terminal should have cost closer to 3 billion and should have been constructed in a totally new area south of the runways near Tiffany Springs Parkway exit.
What can you do. At least it will be way better. But KCI will just have 20 flights a day to real airports like DEN, which MCI could be today...
I had talked to people in the airline industry about this during that time. I was screaming for KC to build a new terminal or Southwest is going to change their plans for KC. Sure enough, they did. Denver and St Louis pretty much took most connecting type flights that KC was going to get and KC will probably never be a major candidate again for such a large SW presence. The airline is now too established elsewhere.
KCI basically functions like a bigger version of Omaha or OKC. Nearly all flights from KC run through DEN, DFW, Chicago etc. Few flights go direct to non hubs. The new terminal is so bare bones that I don't see things changing a whole lot. The new terminal was not built for the "future" like you see most cities do with then build a brand new terminal. It's basically just better than it was before. For a city the size of KC to build a proper terminal for the next 50 years to handle 20-30 million passengers a year, which could have been very possible, a new terminal should have cost closer to 3 billion and should have been constructed in a totally new area south of the runways near Tiffany Springs Parkway exit.
What can you do. At least it will be way better. But KCI will just have 20 flights a day to real airports like DEN, which MCI could be today...
When did you plan to tell KCI officials that you're going to slash daily departures by 88%?
Thing is though everyone wants it but they can’t all be hubs. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarter back. They KC of 20 years ago was also very different then that if today as were a lot of other cities.
When did you plan to tell KCI officials that you're going to slash daily departures by 88%?
I didn't say that KC would ONLY have 20 flights a day, I meant that most of KC's flights will be to a handful of hubs. So 20 flights a day to DEN, 15 to DFW etc. So KC people will still have to fly to two airports to get to a lot of destinations as they do now. With more flights connecting in KC, even Southwest which doesn't technically have hubs, you have a lot more people connecting in KC, so more flight options for those living in KC. I never understood the logic of people preferring KCI over a bigger airport, but then having to route through a bigger airport anyway to get to a final destination half the time. Never mind, this is such a broken record lol.
Basically, I think KC will be little more than a regional airport like Omaha or OKC, but with more flights going to the same hubs. At least the terminal won't be embarrassing to the city anymore.
KC missed the boat several times over to build the city into a major part of the national air system and they are doing it again with the low budget bare bones terminal. The airport is just trying to catch up an offer basic airport amenities, not really much else. It's probably a good thing. The airlines have moved on and even if KC did build a world class terminal, it would take a lot for the airlines to pull KC back into the equation at this point when they are established at other airports that don't take 3 decades to modernize and expand.
I'm still very excited about the new terminal though. I hate flying into or out of KCI. It's so freaking depressing.
Last edited by kcmo; 11-29-2019 at 09:38 AM..
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