Parking garage at new terminal full as KC residents head out for spring break

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - It’s been two weeks since the new KCI terminal opened, and it seems travelers may have run into parking issues.

Tuesday morning, KCI tweeted that its new 6,200-space parking garage and surface parking had reached capacity. Travelers flying out should use economy parking until further notice.

With spring break in full swing, peak travel time has arrived for Kansas Citians, but airport officials said they did not anticipate this to happen on a Tuesday.

“The new garage is 2,000 spaces more than the previous B and C Garage combined. So we did add capacity with this new garage, which is surprising that it filled out so quickly,” said Justin Meyer, Deputy Director of Aviation.

If travelers tried to enter the parking lot Tuesday morning, they may have seen signs and cones blocking the entrance into the new parking garage, directing everyone to economy parking. Some travelers got lucky finding a spot.

“So, we drove around for a little bit it was kind of difficult to find parking. But luckily, we were able to find a spot. One of the gentlemen in the parking lot, that works here helped us,” one traveler told KCTV5.

Others didn’t mind parking in economy and said paying $7.50 per day is better than $25 a day if they parked in the garage.

“It’s normally cheaper, and taking the bus isn’t that bad,” said one another traveler.

For the travelers that were expecting the garage to be available, Meyer said the airport is working quickly to get a system in place that will let travelers know ahead of time if the garage is full.

“Priority of ours is to get that real-time availability parking turned on to our website as soon as possible,” said Meyer.

Peak times travelers can expect to run into this problem is mid-morning from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m.

“When we turned on this new terminal, one of the things we said is we’re going to learn a lot of things quickly,” said Meyer.

Airport officials said travelers should be prepared to bump into full capacity throughout the spring break season.

For the latest news surrounding the new KCI terminal, click here.

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