I attended a residential and also a commercial real estate presentation at the Plaza Public Library on Thursday the 19th. One aspects of the  presentation was about the need for a new terminal at KCI. There were a few things that were made more clear to me at the presentation.
The Why: It seems that we are losing a percentage of business b/c we don’t have as many non-stop flights. Larger planes are needed for the non-stop flights. Our normal traffic at the airport has increased at about 2% a year for the last several years and if we had more non-stops to and from KC we could increase that business even more.  The present terminals at KCI were designed over 40 years ago for smaller planes. In most cases those small planes have now been retired. The airlines are for the new terminal for this reason; they could fly larger planes with more non-stop flights with more passengers on board. Non-stop flights, without the layovers that are needed now, would save business travelers much needed time and would go a long way toward enticing an Amazon HQ to our area.

The Cost: this presentation stated that the cost would be carried by the passengers that actually fly in and out of KCI.  If you don’t fly, you would not pay.

Expansion: the design of the new terminal is allowing for expansion, from about 31 gates up to about 42 gates in this same terminal. There is plenty of room to expand when another terminal is needed beyond what is allowed for now.
*The website that they have, www.betterkci.org has good information.

Those are my thoughts,

Mike Miller
Crown Realty
913 206 2060
mikemiller.crownrealty.com