Many airlines hubbed at KC at some point, but all fell my the wayside.

--TWA
--Braniff
--Midwest (the only one in the 2000s
--SkyBus (if you count that one)

I think I'm missing a few others...

More recently it seems that MCI is edging toward being a DL focus city as DL now serves several former Midwest/Frontier routes--but no SkyClub.

I just get the usual once-over with my passport card in MCI. Highly recommended if you're a US citizen. ;)^


IIRC, the jetways that US was using ~20 years ago still had the Braniff logo on the operator's panel.

Vanguard Airlines - went bankrupt Sept 2001?

+1

I only use my passport card @ MCI.. Good luck trying to use a NEXUS card! :rolleyes:

It was Vanguard Airlines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_Airlines

Don't forget US Air.

Daze

Good call on Eastern and Vanguard, but did USAir really hub in MCI? (I started flying a lot in the mid-1990s and they definitely weren't a hub then or after, but perhaps before/)

Sort of. They had a lot of EAS and other prop flying with Air Midwest, much of it on Beechcraft 1900s. And therefore they had a fair number of mainline flights to their traditional bigger markets. I recall doing a BOS-MCI-DSM/MCI-DCA-BOS routing on a business trip back in 1996 to make status. I flew the DSM-MCI back on Vanguard so I wouldn't have to endure a second 1900 flight.

Nothing like PIT or CLT, of course. But a pretty good array of nonstop destinations including BOS, PHL, LGA, PIT, DCA, CLT, MCO, TPA, IND, ICT, ABQ, SAN, LAS, LAX, SFO and SEA plus the web of Air Midwest as US* feeding it.

KC native who still travels there 2-3x per year. I am also against the exorbitant expense of building a totally new terminal...mostly because it is being sold partially under the ridiculous assumption that it will result in direct flights to more cities. There has to be a way to close one of the existing terminals and retrofit the remaining two in a way more consistent with 21st century conditions.

Sure there is. Throw in modernizing the utilities systems and installing the EPA-mandated system to collect de-icing fluid and you're back up over $1 billion. The terminal has to be replaced.

Of course I have also flown Great Lakes out of MCI to SLN and MHT (2007). Great Lakes stopped serving Kansas City a couple of years ago though.

Born and raised in northeast Kansas, I don't know what the answer is for MCI but I'm excited at the idea of them trying *anything*. I still have family there and have a residence in Overland Park, and its wonderful and fast to fly into but a pain to depart from if for nothing else than the extreme lack of seating in the secure area. I like the DFW-style layout (and love my new home airport) but would absolutely welcome something like IND as well.

I am also a KC native and since I don't pay taxes there anymore I'm all for a new terminal. :) One thing I have always been proud of about KC is that it has the best of everything for a "smaller" metro area. We have pro sports teams that have always had their own stadiums. I think the Jackson County taxpayers just put some big cash into Arrowhead Stadium renovations. They put some rental car tax in place and built the Sprint Center downtown. There isn't even a legit tenant for that building (what Arena Football?) yet it was constructed. So I don't and haven't lived there for years but whyyyy all the fuss over a new terminal for the airport? Everything else in town that's outgrown its useful life has been replaced with a really great facility. I don't understand the hold up here.