The “get off my lawn” complaint about the new airport is the long waits to pick up arriving passengers. The City of Kansas City has taken the long standard government position of blaming you for the problem. If you read between the lines in their explanations for long waits, their billion dollar airport is not convenient for pick ups because you don’t understand picking up people at the airport. So, get back in line, or in this case, sit your butt in the “cell phone lot” that some genius invented a couple of decades ago and this will all be fixed.
Anyway, the complaints have slowly begun to be more vocal, and it seems pretty obvious that in this one manner, this airport “is not” as convenient as the old one, a direct contradiction of everything they promised. Hey, but you got good restaurants and artwork in the terminal, right? Quit being picky!
I don’t personally fly enough or pick anyone up enough to care about much of this except for the hubris of government in never admitting they might be wrong and bunkering down in their defenses. It’s kind of astonishing to watch. Two things can remain true. The airport is still nice, but they messed up the convenience promise. Instead, it’s a “you caused this” blame game to the customers.
I will make this common-sense prediction. The “local” flair to the shops and eat options will slowly phase out over the next five years as “local” options available have a tough time competing against the national companies. If you have ever walked through an airport and looked at a Starbucks or McDonald’s line compared to all the rest, this will resonate with you. If this does not seem likely to you, congratulations, you are next in line for a job at City Hall.
Has anyone woken up in the last couple of weeks and said, hey, let’s go get a bite to eat at the airport?
I’m flying to Phoenix next week, so I’ll give you my firsthand account, maybe. Honestly, I hate flying so much that I try to simply survive even the easiest of flights. I’ve never been a fan of being herded like cattle and I’ve never had a flight experience that did not remind of me of such, therefore I am stuck in what smart people would describe as a quandary. Carry on.
My 85-year-old stepfather used to wait at the McDonald’s in Smithville for family he would pick up at the airport. He had no worries for a cell phone lot. He set up his own command center 15 miles away; much to the chagrin of anyone that had to wait with him. Think of the cell phone lot money he could have saved on this project. Never mind that it took him a half hour or longer to get to you once you landed, he had his system and was convinced it worked the best; kind of reminds me of the architects in this case.
Mostly, I want to check out the phone chargers at the airport. I’m still convinced we built this primarily on the lack of phone charger locations at the old airport and while I’ve spent my share of wealth on phone chargers over the years, I’ve never seen a $1.5 billion dollar phone charging station and I’m honestly looking forward to “plugging into” something that fancy.
(Guy Speckman can be reached eating dinner with family at KCI each evening)