Wichita Mid-Continent Airport (ICT, KICT), United States of America

Wichita Mid-Continent Airport is a busy commercial airport situated in the heart of the mid-west of the US. The airport is south-west of the city of Witchita in Sedgewick County, Kansas, and is the state's busiest airport (it hosted 1.6m passengers in 2007 and 1.4m in 2006) next to Kansas City International.

The airport is operated by the Wichita Airport Authority (WAA) and has three concrete paved runways: 1L/19R (10,301ft, 3,140m); 1R/19L (7,301ft, 2,225m) and 14/32 (6,301ft, 1,921m). The airport was constructed on its present 1,923-acre site and opened in 1954, when it was known as Wichita Municipal Airport (the name was changed in 1974).

Gate facilities

In 2008 there are two terminal buildings at the airport, which have some twelve boarding gates. These are split between the east and west terminals (east has 1–6 and the west has 7–12).

Some of the 12 gates are not always in action: gate 4 is used only for overflow by Northwest Airlines as it is small and has no boarding bridge. Ten gates are used regularly but of these, 7, 8, 9 and 11 do not have boarding bridge facilities, meaning that the passengers have to walk to their plane.

However gate 11, which is used by Delta Airlines, has a remote canopy used to cover passengers during bad weather.

New Wichita terminal building

The new two-storey terminal building is being constructed to the west of the existing terminal, for which it will eventually provide a replacement. The project was conceived in 2004 and the design unveiled in June 2008.

The 240,000ft terminal has a modern design reflecting flight and aviation themes with special exhibits incorporated in the design. It will have the capacity to host 2m passengers a year.

The construction is expected to begin in spring 2009 and be completed in late 2011–2012. The existing terminal will be demolished in phases as the new terminal becomes fully operational.

There will be a host of new features and improvements over the older building including:

• A new terminal roadway and covered curb with separate lanes for private and commercial vehicles
• Enlarged ticketing and baggage claim on the terminal's main entry level
• Departure lounges, concessions and expanded passenger security screening on the upper level concourse
• Ten boarding gates, each equipped with a dedicated passenger boarding bridge (later to be increased to 12)
• Passenger baggage handling systems with inline explosives detection and state-of-the-art security screening
• Enhanced pre and post-security concessions and passenger retail outlets
• New rental car service counters, plus close-in parking and car return
• New short and long-term public parking plus an expanded shuttle parking lot
• A total of about 2,100 car-parking spaces
• New communications, life safety and security systems
• New aircraft apron to accommodate the relocated terminal and gates

Construction

The new terminal building is expected to cost $150m. To offset this investment the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded $2.6m for additional design and project formulation.

Previously the FAA awarded the WAA $12m to be used on the construction of the new terminal building. The project is expected to be funded by a mixture of federal funds and airport revenue.

The main architects for the project are HNTB Architects, along with Gossen Livingston Associates. Other companies involved in the project include Professional Engineering Consultants and Dudley Williams & Associates.

Logplan was selected to design and provide the construction management for the new baggage and in-line baggage screening system. The themed exhibits and public art will be coordinated by Greteman Group and the landscape design will be by Landworks Studio.

Masterplanning was aided by Coffman and Associates.

Master plan

The master plan for the airport was formulated in 1998 and involved a range of long-term projects including the construction of a new terminal building. Airside projects include the extension of all parallel taxiways to provide full-length taxiway access along runways, extension of Runway 1R-19L to 8,700ft, rehabilitation of taxiway A and rehabilitation and expansion of general aviation ramp, expansion of the air carrier apron in parallel with the new terminal, expansion of air cargo apron and relocation of airport surveillance radar to the south side of airfield.

Landside improvements include construction of a replacement terminal facility and reconfiguration of parking and loop road (underway in spring 2009), relocation of the air cargo building and expansion of the facilities to meet demand, expansion of general aviation facilities, including hangars and maintenance facilities, acquisition of land for aviation-related development (business park) and relocation of Hoover Road.