KCI experiences busiest days since 2019

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - More than 80,000 people have taken off or landed at KCI over the last two days, which is the busiest KCI has been since before the pandemic.

“If you have lots of people coming in to serve, then you need lots of people to serve them,” said Joe McBride, a spokesman for KCI.

The airport has increased staffing at restaurants, security, and ticket gates. The extra staff at KCI is not lost on the travelers. They said they see a difference.

“It’s been real smooth, surprisingly,” said Ron Coaxum. “We thought because of the news reports of millions of people traveling today, we thought we’d see a huge crowd of people. But, it’s been very easy to get in. No bottlenecks, no traffic of any sort at all.”

“I honestly think it’s been run really smoothly,” said Heather Anderson. “They try really hard to keep it clean and it’s been nice.”

If there has been one hiccup at the new terminal at KCI, it’s that there have been long wait times at the Arrivals curb. People have been parking their car there and waiting, causing big slow downs for the traffic behind them.

“You don’t want to get in a traffic jam as you are trying to pick up your loved ones, so don’t park at the curb,” said McBride.

Even in the midst of the first holiday rush, lots of travelers are saying good things about the new terminal.

“There’s a lot of good food places to eat, lots of great stops for awesome Kansas City beer,” Anderson said. “A lot of local faces. It’s nice to see around here, too, and they make it very comfortable for us.”

The airport said they expect more than 11 million passengers will use KCI this year, including traffic from the old terminals from January and February.

Copyright 2023 KCTV. All rights reserved.