Originally Posted by
MKEflyer95
I would've suggested to have another restaurant down there to replace something thats currently above D27-D29 to possibly accomodate a couple of more jetways above those three current lower level gates.
The hitch is that the "stem" of the D concourse is rather narrow. Back when there were upper-level jetway gates on both sides of the stem (D30/34/36/38 on the north and D33/35/37 on the south) the corridor was often jam-packed during peak times. That's the reason the moving walkways were installed on the lower level, a way to divert some foot traffic out of that stem between the hammerhead and the terminal. Making the south gates ground-level boarding gates helped the stem be far less claustrophobic and congested. Given how the upper level was remodeled (Nonna's is where D37 used to be, some of the other upper-level areas are open atriums to the lower level) it would take a lot of work to put upper-level jetway gates back to the south side of the stem.
Strangely enough the congestion in the stem could be worse now than it had been before with jetways on both sides. That's because in the old YX/F9 days D had a lot of connecting traffic which stayed in the concourse, and only a few gates were in the upper level of the stem.
Looking at the MKE monthly stats for April, here's the number of "screened" (aka local-boarding) passengers for concourse D:
April 2010 D local screened passengers
about 108k YX/F9+WN
April 2011 D local screened passengers
about 106k YX/F9+WN
April 2015 D local screened passengers
about 102k DL+F9+US (today)
about 119k DL+F9+US plus AA (all signs point to AA consolidation on D)
about 145k DL+F9+US+AA plus UA/AC (if United & Air Canada were to move to D)
Local passengers all come through security and go through the stem to get to the hammerhead. When AA consolidates on D (all signs point to that) D will screen more passengers than they did in the peak days. Except for those who take the moving walkway, they all walk through the stem upper level. If they were to ever put upper-level jetways on the south side of the D stem again, they'd probably need to widen the concourse one way or another.
Originally Posted by
mizzou65201
Also, it looked from a nighttime drive by that the north end of the baggage claim remodel is nearing completion. Just from looks it seems as though the exterior/roadway work is further from completion than the interior.
I noticed that too -- though the official completion isn't targeted for several weeks it would be nice for them to open up the space and start using all the carousels sooner. Summerfest / July 4 / NML convention time is the big summer push, and having more of that open for passengers would be great. Hopefully they are able to make an early-soft-opening happen -- I think they'd like to.