Kansas City International Airport (originally Mid-Continent International Airport) is a public airport 15 miles (24 km) northwest of downtown Kansas City, in Platte County, Missouri. In 2008, 10,469,892 passengers used the airport.
It has consistently ranked in the top-five airports in the North America Airport Satisfaction Study by J. D. Power and Associates. In February 2010 the airport was the highest-rated medium-sized airport receiving five stars in all categories. In February 2008, U.S. News & World Report ranked the airport the “third least miserable airport” in the U.S., based on the 47 busiest airports in the country.
Its largest carriers are Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines, both having many daily flights in Terminal B.
The airport has always been a civilian airport and has never had an Air National Guard unit assigned to it.
In 2009 the airport was reported as having the highest number of wildlife strikes of any airport in the US, based on take-offs and landings (57 per 100,000). FAA records showed 146 strikes in 2008 – up from 37 in 2000.
KANSAS CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT HISTORY
Kansas City Industrial Airport was built after the Great Flood of 1951 destroyed the facilities of both of Kansas City’s hometown airlines Mid-Continent Airlines and TWA at Fairfax Airport across the Missouri River from the city’s main Kansas City Municipal Airport (which was not as badly damaged). TWA’s main overhaul base was a former B-25 bomber factory at Fairfax, although TWA commercial flights flew out of the main downtown airport.
Kansas City was planning to build an airport with room for 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runways and knew the downtown airport wouldn’t do.
Kansas City already owned Grandview Airport south of the city with ample room for expansion, but the city chose to build a new airport north of the city away from the Missouri River following lobbying by Platte County native Jay B. Dillingham, president of the Kansas City Stockyards, which had also been destroyed in the flood. TWA moved its Fairfax plant to the new airport and also its overseas overhaul operations at New Castle County Airport in Delaware.
The site just north of the then unincorporated hamlet of Hampton, Missouri was picked in May 1953 (with an anticipated cost of $23 million) under the guidance of City Manager L.P. Cookingham.[9] Cookingham Drive is now the main access road to the airport. Ground was broken in September 1954.[10] The first runway opened in 1956; at about the same time the city donated the southern Grandview Airport to the United States Air Force to become Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base.
KANSAS CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT LOCATION
KANSAS CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT FACTS
ICAO/IATA: KMCI/MCI
Lat: 39°17′51″N
Long: 94°42′50″W
Elevation: 1,026 ft.
Runway length available: 01R/19L 9500×150 ft. :: 01L/19R 10801×150 ft. :: 09/27 9500×150 ft.
