For years the folks at Kansas City International Airport have been pushing the idea of consolidating its three terminals into one.
And for years residents and flyers have responded with “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” to any changes.
According to the Kansas City Star, the KC Aviation Department is now betting that paying a PR firm $117,000 will change the public’s mind on the issue and get behind the project and its potential cost of $1.2 billion.
According to the Star story by Dave Helling and Lynn Horsley, public reaction to the idea of a single terminal “has ranged from lukewarm to hostile.”
The politically connected Global Prairie PR firm has been awarded the contract because “There are a lot of misconceptions out there,” according to aviation director Mark VanLoh.
Global Prairie is currently involved in an effort to get voters to approve a property tax for indigent health care in KC that was recently endorsed by the Star. It is likely the McClatchy-owned paper will endorse the single terminal concept going forward.
If paying a PR firm $117,000 to get residents to now get behind the billion dollar project then the money will have been well-spent.
BOONDOGGLE
The city and Mark VanLoh have figured out that nobody who knows anything about KCI is buying their line about needing a single terminal at the airport. So now they’re hiring a PR firm to sell it to voters.
Smart move on their part, because if bonds are needed, they’ve got to convince people who may rarely use the airport that KC is a hick town that will magically become a cosmopolitan city if we only do away with an airport configuration that currently makes it the most convenient mid size airport in the country.
If KC needed a single terminal, frequent flyers would be clamoring for it. But instead, Mark VanLoh and his buddies on the city council need help selling an expensive lie.
LOCAL FIRM
At least they are using a KC-based PR firm.
Unlike the American Royal BBQ…
CAMPAIGN NOT NEEDED
I’ll take the $117,000 up front. You don’t need a campaign. Just drive around the airport
Which airlines are left standing?
Southwest
Delta
American
United
Frontier
That’s it, folks.I’m not including Air Canada, because they have only one flight in and out, same with Alaska Airlines. Two terminals, at max, is plenty.There are no other airlines to attract.If we’re waiting for Jet Blue or Virgin America, forget it.
I now understand the beauty of those new destination signs on the way to the terminals. When an airline disappears, you simply make the letters in the name of the remaining airlines in the terminal bigger.
LEADERSHIP LACKS IMAGINATION
Actually their explanation of the needs of Alaska Airlines type of carriers was one of the few things they said that made sense at today’s presentation to the City Council’s transportation committee. It makes me sick but this looks like a done deal. Obviously the City Council is going to vote for it. The Chamber president didn’t even show up to endorse it, just sent an underling with a written statement. They threw out a few tough questions but in the end the resolution passed to go on to the full Council and I don’t know if they voted on it but I suspect they did and it passed. If there were an election the folks would vote this down in overwhelming numbers.
To me, this is a bigger issue than whether we have a new air terminal. It is proof positive that the leadership in this city lacks the kind of imagination that put Kansas City on the map in the first place by outflanking the much bigger cities of Leavenworth and St. Joseph by getting the rail bridge over the Missouri River.
We have copy cat leaders, copying cities that are nothing like us, using generic population statistics and a few airport intercepts to make their case. I would love to be able to challenge these proponents to a debate. If we want to spend that kind of money let’s at least create something spectacular.