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New KCI Terminal Design Going Well, Consultant Says

People working to develop a new terminal at Kansas City International Airport say the project is going so well that it could become a national model. 

Sheri Ernico, who’s advising the city aviation department, says that airlines are working closely with designers to spec out a replacement terminal at KCI. She says they are sharing their own projections about the traffic they’re planning for in and out of Kansas City years from now, and they also are working to make sure that the new space would accommodate new and future technology. She says Kansas City needs a new terminal, though nothing fancy .

“Nobody on the team is interested in building an iconic fortress, or anything of that nature,” Ernico told Kansas City council members Thursday. “It’s going to be very functional, very practical, very efferent, very cost effective. It's going to be an affordable project."

She says existing fees and federal grants would cover the entire cost thanks to the unique system that funds airports nationwide.

“This is a closed system, no local tax revenues in, no airport revenues out,” said Ernico.

A final decision about whether to build a new terminal at KCI or modify the old ones is at least a year away.

I’ve been at KCUR almost 30 years, working partly for NPR and splitting my time between local and national reporting. I work to bring extra attention to people in the Midwest, my home state of Kansas and of course Kansas City. What I love about this job is having a license to talk to interesting people and then crafting radio stories around their voices. It’s a big responsibility to uphold the truth of those stories while condensing them for lots of other people listening to the radio, and I take it seriously. Email me at frank@kcur.org or find me on Twitter @FrankNewsman.
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