Sherae Honeycutt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Original Post

The new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport is wheels up following city council’s approval of the development on Thursday afternoon.

The vote to approve an ordinance for the $1.5 billion project run by Edgemoor was 11-1, with Alissia Canady being the sole “no” vote against it.

Click here to see the development agreement

Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, Southwest, and United all signed the deal, so did shipping companies FedEx and UPS. Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant did not sign the agreement.

The decision didn’t happen without a lot of discussion on Thursday. The business session ran an hour longer than planned as members of the city council worked to complete the agreement.

In the end, 11 of the 12 council members voted “yes”, including Councilman Scott Wagner. He changed his vote to support the idea, even after he voted against the plan in 2018.

Wagner said he has faith this deal is a good move for the city. Councilman Reed said Kansas City is a world-class city, and deserving of a world-class airport.

“Today, I want to use this opportunity to celebrate with my colleagues and all the supporters, and more importantly, everyone in Kansas City. We’ll roll up our sleeves again next week, and we’ll continue working hard to get this right,” he said.

Councilwoman Canady explained why she dissented.

“The project we’re looking at now is no longer a P3. It is not. It is a design build project. So, what we categorized as a transformative project is no longer that, and if it’s no longer a P3, why are we paying $45 million for owners rep?” she said.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved a required environmental assessment last week, and construction can start in a few weeks. The start of the project includes demolishing existing Terminal A.