Airport Experience® News - ACDBE & Small Business Issue 2024

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

TSA checkpoint numbers throughout the United States, but for Kansas City, we now have a facility that can handle that growth. We have airline partners who are ready to grow and expand because we have a facility that is state of the art and that passengers enjoy. WARD: About 18 months in on the new terminal, are there now any tweaks necessary or any changes in the works? COOPER: We’re still actually trying to close out the terminal project. We’ve learned some things through the first year and a half of operation and we continue to want to be the best we can be. WE are [in the process of adding] a common-use lounge area for our passengers. We also looking at ways to improve our arrivals, our curb and our cell phone lot experience and we continue to and try to enhance the security checkpoint line experience and our concessions experience. We have a great product, but we want to be better every day.

WARD: How is the concessions program performing? COOPER: We’ve seen in the a significant increase – our old terminal didn’t lend itself to concessions development. [Travelers] couldn’t see beyond the next curve of our horseshoe shaped terminal, and so our concessions program really was there to meet the minimum requirements of our passengers. With this brand-new terminal being wide open and connecting all of our airline partners and our stakeholders and our passengers in one space, we really had an opportunity to lean into a concession program that reflected on Kansas City. We’ve seen significant improvements in our revenue. (For calendar year 2022, with the previous terminal, MCI had food and beverage gross sales of $25.35 million, and news and gift gross sales of just under $6 million. In the first 11 months of the new terminal, food and beverage gross sales came in at $42.04 million while news and gift sales jumped to $22.27 million.)

Above: The new 40-gate terminal at Kansas City International Airport opened about 18 months ago, offering a more streamlined experience for travelers.

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AX NEWS JULY/AUGUST 2024