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Kansas City International Airport is an airport in Kansas City, Missouri, Platte County, Missouri. It has the IATA Airport Code MCI. (The airport was originally called Mid-Continent International. This is especially confusing, since the 'real' Mid Continent International airport in Wichita, Kansas is forced to use the code ICT.)
This airport began life as a small reliever airport for what is now Kansas City Downtown airport. The downtown airport was very convenient, but was not fit for the jet-age, due to it's short runway and close proximity to the downtown area.
In order to accommodate the more demanding jets, the city built the International Airport on the site of the reliever facility, and in 1973, the new airport opened for business. Almost all the airlines that were at the old facility moved to the new airport. This airport served as a hub for the now defunct Eastern Airlines, as well as Braniff Airlines (also out of business) and TWA (now part of American Airlines.) MCI was a major service facility for TWA, and as of Jan 2004, the status of the TWA repair depot under American Airlines is undecided.
MCI is a major airport, but serves more of a role as a "spoke" in the national airline network. At 10,000 acres, it is one of the largest airfields in the United States. In addition to passenger service, the airport is an active general aviation field, and a very active cargo airport.
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