It appears construction is remaining on schedule for a March 2023 opening of the new Kansas City International Airport Terminal Airport. A video released by BuildKC in November shows the structures complete with inside finishing the major ongoing focus.
According to MCI officials, the terminal is more than 90% complete.
The old airport built in 1972 will be torn down and replaced with the new terminal built to reflect current airport and travel and security standards in mind.
“The way that this terminal is designed and how everything is accessible beyond the security checkpoint, we’re able to do things we’ve never been able to do before,” Justin Meyer, deputy director of aviation at MCI, told the St. Joseph News Press.
More about the New Terminal
Frequent travelers will recognize arrival and departure patterns similar to other airports with guest drop off and departing on the top level and arrival and pickups on the lower level.
The entry and ticketing area is the size of two football fields. There is one consolidated security checkpoint. Customers who have cleared security will have access to all areas of the terminal including both concourses A and B.
There is a connector between concourses.
Beyond security, there will be around 50 restaurants and retail spaces in the news terminal, with many built around Kansas City themes like barbecue and areas, like the River Market.
Meyer said the gate areas are significantly larger and the boarding bridges to the airplanes are constructed of glass, giving passengers a view of what’s going on around them.
The new airport’s many technology improvements include moving walkways, charging areas and heat-sensored lights above the bathroom stalls that turn red when the stall is occupied, and green when a stall is open.
Similar technology will be used in the airport’s new seven-story, 6000-space parking garage, which will be located across from the new terminal.
“Rather than having to drive up and down lanes looking for a parking space, there’ll be indicators above each parking stall to indicate whether it’s occupied or open,” Meyer said. “So, you can see, ‘Two lanes over, halfway down, there’s a green light. We’ll park there.'”
Thanks to the City’s One Percent for Art Program that requires all municipal building construction, reconstruing or remodeling to set aside 1% of the project’s estimated cost for art, visitors to the terminal will enjoy a great deal of original art throughout the terminal.
In addition to art, Meyer says entertainment is planned for the terminal.
Construction on the terminal began in 2019, and despite the pandemic, the project is still on time and on budget.
After the terminal is complete, construction at the airport will continue with reconditioning of the airport’s primary, and 2 mile-long, runway.
