Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2023

RENDERING TO REALITY

TAKING LOCAL TO A NEW LEVEL Through Restaurants And Retail, Kansas City International’s New Terminal Embraces The City’s Many Attributes

BY C AROL WARD

ditor’s Note: For the past six years, Airport Exper ience News has intermittently tracked the progress of

The new, 40-gate terminal at MCI officially opened on February 28, more than 50 years after the airport and its three terminals began serving Kansas City. The new terminal marks the largest single infrastructure project in Kansas City history. AXN’s Melissa K. Montes and Carol Ward traveled to Kansas City in mid-May to meet with airport officials and executives from Vantage Airport Group , OHM Concession Group and Marshall Retail Group , and to tour the new terminal. Below is the final article in this Rendering to Reality series.

Above: A centerpiece of the new terminal at MCI is a light sculpture called “Fountain,” a nod to the hundreds of fountains found throughout the city.

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the new Kansas City International Airport (MCI) terminal. Coverage began before ground was ever broken on the $1.5 billion project, when in late 2017 voters put their stamp of approval on the once-controversial plan to build a brand-new facility rather than revamp the existing three terminals. Since then, AXN has covered everything from the early stages of construction to the selection of a developer for the concessions program to the excitement as the building took shape.

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