Kansas City International Airport

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The Kansas City Airport ( engl. Kansas City International Airport ) is the international airport of Kansas City in the U.S. state of Missouri.

History

The airport was built after 1951 flood had damaged facilities on the existing airport Kansas City Fairfax. Construction began in September 1954 and 1956, the first airstrip was opened. As an official name for the airport was chosen Mid-Continent International Airport to the airline Mid-Continent Airlines, which had, however, already taken over by competitors Braniff International Airways at the time of initiation.

After the inauguration, there was no regular scheduled flights at the airport, main user was Trans World Airlines (TWA), who set up a maintenance facility at the airport. After the Federal Aviation Agency 1963 Downtown Airport Kansas City (now Kansas City Charles B. Wheeler Airport ) had declared to be inadequate for large jets, the inhabitants of Kansas City in 1966 to buy the Mid-Continent International Airport, the main airport expand the city. In 1972 the work was completed and the new Kansas City International Airport was inaugurated by U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew. TWA was planning to build a hub at the airport to the Midwest with the help of the then-new Boeing 747 to connect to international destinations.

During the construction we chose a layout similar to the airport Berlin- Tegel, where the passengers were able to drive almost to their boarding gate. The large numbers of passengers of the Boeing 747 made ​​this layout with major problems, with the advent of more stringent security controls, these problems yet. TWA urged the city administration a fundamental reconstruction and eventually moved when they were denied, with the hub to the airport to St. Louis.

Operation

The airport is now a hub of Midwest Airlines, passenger capacity, however, is Southwest Airlines, the largest airline. The Kansas City airport is connected by the major U.S. airlines to their respective hubs, in addition, direct flights to U.S. and Canadian destinations.