By a 3-to-1 margin, Kansas City, Missouri voters ended a nearly decade-long debate over what to do with the city’s aging main airport. In a Tuesday referendum, the agreed to a privately-financed single terminal that will replace the three existing buildings.
The 1980s airport, built before current security issues, has three horseshoe-shaped terminals which have allowed passengers to park near their terminal and have a fairly short path to the gate—at least until post-9/11 security required each terminal, and in some cases each cluster of gates, to have its own security area. As a result, passengers, once scanned in, have been limited to small areas with little access to shops or restaurants.
The airlines have complained, both because their passengers do, and because the cost of maintaining many security stations is ultimately passed back to the carriers. The new plan fixes that by having all passengers arrive at a single terminal screening area, with open airside access to terminal facilities. But many passengers have been unwilling to trade that promise for what they are used to.
Officially, the city will not pay anything toward the $1 billion terminal plan, which is to be funded by user fees and by the airlines. But some civic groups have claimed that eventually the city would have to bail out excess costs.
Proponents, on the other hand, say a modern airport will help lure convention business to the city, and enable the airlines to offer better connections and more flights.
