Kansas City and Sioux Falls airports to go under construction
June 25, 2012, 02:13 pm
Aviation officials at Kansas City International Airport told city council members recently that instead of building a replacement for the airport on entirely new territory, they want to use the land Terminal A currently sits on and build a new airport.
Officials said the move would save $500 million and at least two years of construction time.
“We had too many airlines in the way and we had all this land and we thought, ‘Hey, it’s going to be cheaper to build on a green grass site,’” Mark VanLoh, the city’s aviation director, told the Kansas City Business Journal. “Halfway through this study, we’re finding that it is absolutely not cheaper to build on a green grass site, and the recent airline consolidations have really made it easy for us to get everybody out of Terminal A, tear it down and then build one big terminal on that site.”
The only airlines still operating in Terminal A are US Airways and United Airlines. Since United recently merged with Continental Airlines, officials have said both will be located in Terminal C, where Continental currently operates and US Airways will relocate. According to VanLoh, United and US Airways have a partnership and prefer to be located in the same terminal.
Sioux Falls Regional Airport in South Dakota also announced it will be shutting down for construction. Dan Letellier, the airport’s executive director, said the concrete in the airport's two main runways is 30 years old and it's time for a change to ensure safe operation. He also stated that airlines and travelers have been flexible in accommodating the construction by altering travel plans when the construction is under way. It is a once in a lifetime construction that finally must be taken care of, he added. The project is expected to completed within five years, compared to the initial estimate of at least seven years.
The airport has been increasing passenger traffic in the last three years due to its improvements. It has added a new ticketing kiosk, expanded its parking and traffic patterns, and added two restaurants and a bigger gift shop.
"We've set records every month this year," Letellier said. "And the comments from the traveling public have been extremely supportive.
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