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Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

I fly here a lot. AAMOF, I'm sitting here now. Wifi for $10 for 24 hrs access - what a ripoff. This airport's not bad. A little unusual - for those who have never been here, it's a 60's-70's type design. Three identical terminals, each a big three-quarters circle with a circular-loop road passing in front of each and connecting the three. It also is very "skinny." You go from the parking lot, into the terminal building, and to the boarding gate, in about 150 feet. That used to be something they touted, that you could very quickly be at the airplane. But the problem nowadays with the design is that there are a jillion security screening points. Each group of about 4-6 gates is walled off behind a glass wall with a separate security line. And, although they're finally renovating to fix this problem, there are no bathrooms inside security. So you don't go to the gate until shortly before your flight, unless you're really sure you don't have to pee. The skinniness of the terminal also leaves little room for restaurants/bars, and those that they have here are all squeezed in between the hallway and the outside of the building. Again, it might have been a decent design 30-40 years ago, but today it just doesn't amount to much in terms of pax comfort - especially if you have a lot of time to kill.

And this place has 90 gates, about 30 or so of which are unoccupied, by my estimation. I think that's a good illustration of how building an airport to the right size is a tricky proposition. We've discussed here how the new IND terminal, with 40 gates, might be too small by the time it opens. Well, looking at a third-empty large airport shows you that it's probably better to be a bit too small than to overshoot and have to pay for all that vacant space.

MCI is a fairly cheap airport to fly. Good selection of Southwest, Frontier, Airtran, and Spirit (I think they're still around) keep the fares down to most destinations. Midwest also has a focus here, with n/s service to SFO. SAN, SAT, LAX, TPA, MCO, FLL, and of course the MKE hub. They also codeshare with the US Airways service to the little Kansas towns like Manhattan, Hays, Salina, Great Bend, Garden City, Dodge City, and Little Rock, AR.

All in all, a decent airport - not too busy, good fares and flight selections. But IND doesn't ever want to find itself in a situation like this - where the airport DESIGN itself is totally outdated and rather cumbersome for those who use it.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

We did a two hour stop in KC in November on our way out to Las Vegas. It was fun taking the first walk through the building...and then it quickly turned into SUCK!!!

I wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Oy.