KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Coming off its second Super Bowl in the last four seasons, the Kansas City Chiefs were already poised to be major driver of interest this season.
Sprinkle in a strong start and a dash of intrigue thanks to Taylor Swift and Kansas City is finding itself at the center of the map on weekends when the team plays at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Last month, Kansas City International Airport’s single terminal set an all-time record for passenger travel in September, but it’s not the only airport in the area seeing a boom in traffic this fall.
Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport has also seen its share of traffic this fall.
On Chiefs game days, the airport sees an additional 60-120 flights than a normal day, though the exact number is more difficult to pin down as visitors will sometimes arrive the morning of the game, while others arrive earlier and make a weekend in Kansas City.
On Sunday, the Chiefs kicked off against the Los Angeles Chargers at 3:25 p.m.
Between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., the downtown airport, (which goes by the airport code MKC), handled roughly 50 arriving aircraft.
Among the most popular origins of flights arriving include Bentonville, Arkansas, Springfield, Missouri, Wichita and several cities in Texas.
By the time the final whistle blew around 6:20 p.m., the Chiefs walked off the field 31-17 winners.
As fans filed out of the stadium, those who flew in for the game made the dash west to the downtown airport.
Between 6 and 11 p.m., roughly 50 flights took off from the downtown airport, with many of the same destinations as origins from earlier in the day.
In one instance, a Cessna business jet took off around 12:07 p.m. from Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield, Illinois, arriving at Kansas City’s downtown airport less than an hour later at 12:53 p.m. The jet was on the ground for about seven hours. By 8:05 p.m., the travelers were back in the air for the return flight home, which landed back in Springfield at 8:48 p.m.
Other flights take advantage of air share programs like NetJets.
On Sunday, the company dropped off passengers from Missoula, Montana, at 4:25 p.m. at KCI airport.
But in order to meet traveler demand, the plane, another Cessna business jet, needed to relocate to the downtown airport and took a short seven minute flight between the two. By 7:52 p.m., the jet was back in the air to take passengers to Perot Field in Fort Worth, Texas.
But at least one of the flights that took off Sunday from the downtown airport returned back to the downtown airport about four hours later.
The flight belonged to Winged Vision Inc., a company that provides aerial images of sporting events. It’s not hard to determine what its pilots were up to based just on the flight path.
The boom in flights generates revenue for the city’s Aviation Department as well.
In addition to any spending visitors make at hotels, restaurants and shops while in Kansas City, the airport receives a small fuel flowage fee and certain aircraft pay landing fees.
Other variables that can affect the amount of air travel on a Chiefs game day include the opponent, weather and the time of the game.
The Chiefs have played four home games already this season. The team’s Nov. 5 game against the Miami Dolphins in Frankfurt, Germany, is technically a home game, but officially, the Chiefs have four more games this season at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Among the remaining games include a Monday night Super Bowl rematch at 7:20 p.m. on Nov. 20 against the Philadelphia Eagles, a 3:25 p.m. kickoff on Sunday, Dec. 10 against Buffalo, a noon start on Christmas Day against the Las Vegas Raiders and a 3:25 p.m. kickoff on Sunday, Dec. 31, featuring a rematch of the AFC Championship against the Cincinnati Bengals.
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