KCI had nearly 10.5 million passengers, final 2015 numbers show

Passenger traffic at Kansas City International Airport rose 3 percent in 2015, to 10,472,461, the Kansas City Aviation Department reported Monday.

“Not only does KCI end 2015 with more passengers than 2014, but this ‘up’ year is punctuated by 20 straight months of positive passenger growth,” Kansas City’s director of aviation, Mark VanLoh, said in a release. “This shows the region is strong and the airlines are recognizing this fact by continuing to add service here, including new and existing carriers.”

The 2015 total was up from 10,166,879 in 2014 and 9,800,217 in 2013. It’s short of the airport’s pre-recession peak of 11,276,383 in 2007 and all-time high of 11,910,654 in 2000.

For December, 847,164 passengers used the airport, up 1.2 percent from December 2014.

Established KCI carriers such as American, Southwest, Spirit and Alaska added routes or increased flights on existing routes to destinations such as Washington, D.C.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Miami; Los Angeles; and Orange County, Calif. Allegiant also joined the list of carriers serving KCI and started flights to Punta Gorda, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Orlando, Fla.

For 2016, Frontier has announced new flights to Chicago O’Hare, Atlanta and Philadelphia; American is starting service to Cancun and New York LaGuardia; and Alaska will start flights to Portland, Ore.

In air cargo, which consists of freight and mail transported by air, KCI business was up 1.4 percent for the year, to 190.4 million pounds handled. The December tonnage was 17.6 million pounds, up 3.6 percent from December 2014.

The freight part of that for the year was 182.9 million pounds, up 0.3 percent. Air mail for 2015 was 7.5 million pounds, up 51.2 percent.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 2:50 PM with the headline "KCI had nearly 10.5 million passengers, final 2015 numbers show."