KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After bottoming out in April 2020, total passenger traffic at Kansas City International Airport has rebounded in robust fashion just in time for the opening of a new terminal Tuesday.
With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, KCI only welcomed only 42,190 arriving and departing passengers in April 2020.
But as Kansas City, Missouri, celebrates the opening of a new $1.5-billion single-terminal KCI, which becomes operational Tuesday, the industry’s recovery has been robust.
More than 10 million travelers boarded or deplaned at KCI every year from 2014 to 2019, but that number dipped to fewer than 4.5 million — unprecedented since the mid-1970s for the airport — three years ago.
There were strong signs of recovery in 2021 despite staffing challenges, pricey flights and an ongoing lag in business- and leisure-travel demand.
Still, the airport welcomed fewer than 7.7 million passengers, the fewest — aside from 2020 — since 1992.
With 9,819,092 passengers in 2022, passenger traffic at KCI largely has returned to levels that were fairly typical for the airport from 1995 until the onset of the pandemic.
The new airport terminal, which was promised and delivered in time for the 2023 NFL Draft, offers more amenities that modern travelers require — and, frankly, that travelers through KCI have needed in recent years.
Kansas City voters signed off on a new single-terminal KCI in November 2017.
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