TKC MUST READ!!! NEW KCI DEAL 'RESIDUAL COST AGREEMENT' THREATENS TO RUIN KANSAS CITY AIR TRAVEL AND SEND COSTS SKYROCKETING!!!



Special thanks to AWESOME KANSAS CITY INSIDERS who have once again blessed our blog community with detailed analysis, insight and EXCLUSIVE INFO on the horrific new KCI deal and how it impacts this town and anyone who dares to travel using the proposed new facility.

To wit . . .

TKC BLOG COMMUNITY EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! THE NEW KCI DEAL DECIMATES THE CURRENT FINANCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE AIRPORT AND REPLACES IT WITH A SKETCHY CORPORATE SCHEME!!!

Mayor Sly has always favored privatization but this latest deal sells out KCMO voters and taxpayers in historic fashion.

Here's the word . . .

KCI: Another Promise to Voters Betrayed

The big promise of the new airport was no tax dollars in the deal. That’s now a punch line. But you may remember another promise: We will still own the airport. Not really. KCI is owned by KCMO, meaning it belongs to Kansas Citians. The airport is managed, in theory, to prevent the public from being taken advantage of by air carriers charging exorbitant prices or outright fixing of ticket prices. The is not a baseless concern. Airlines have recently settled lawsuits against them for tens-of -millions of dollars when they were charged with ticket price fixing. They were accused of doing this by manipulating access to the airport gates and other facilities they control at various airports.

The risk is losing control of the KCI in all but name, creating a situation ripe for fleecing passengers. How could this happen? A thing called a Residual Cost Agreement with the airlines, which is what the airport is now proposing. Under this type of agreement, the airlines agree to pick up all KCI operating expenses, including about four billion dollars of bond payments. In return, airlines get control of gates, certain passenger fees, baggage systems and other operating arrangements that effectively put them in control of the airport. For ponying up this money, they also agree to contracts that expire in only five to nine years, although bond payments go on for 35 years. This not how the airport is operating now. The current system is a Compensatory Cost Agreement in which airlines basically pay for what they use but don’t get broad operational control of the airport.

The city doesn’t have four billion dollars for a new airport. It’s wooing airlines to pay for it, effectively selling control of the airport to the highest bidder. What’s could happen? “You have to fly the airline that dominates. The airlines that are not dominant in a market almost always only fly you to their respective hubs, the airports THEY dominate. So if you fly them, you end up taking a connecting itinerary almost everywhere you fly.”

“In the past decade, mega-mergers reduced nine large U.S. airlines to four — American, United, Delta and Southwest — with the result that travelers are increasingly finding their home airport dominated by just one or two players.”

You end up being shuttled to the most profitable airports for the airline that issued your ticket, not necessarily the route most cost effective for you. Bottom line? Don’t look for this deal to increase airlines competition or lower the costs of flying. Another promise to voters betrayed.
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Developing . . .

Comments

  1. Better title: The Southwest Trojan House. Because we're all going to get screwed.

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    1. Seems like another anti-trust deal helped along by Sly and the Gang. A bad deal for passengers and for KC. I guess this is why some of the CFRG people wanted to talk about renovation instead of this nightmare.

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    2. Luckily, the new airport isn't going to be done until 2050.

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  2. Funny, I've only heard good things about the new airport and how it was going to a great new asset for the city because it'll have more restaurants and maybe some more stores. I guess the newspaper isn't printing anything critical about it because they might not get their daily briefing from Mayro James any more. Too bad, guess then maybe they coulnd't print all of their other press releases.

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  3. Whenever you have somebody paying for something, they'll look out for their interests over yours. The sad thing is that we are still paying for it just in the way of financing charges that they aren't saying. So it's a double ripoff, kc is borrowing to sercure the future of Southwest. It's a a huge rip and probably one of the biggest scams in airline history. Only the idiots in KC would give away the store like this.

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  4. Where are the pink pussy hats at? Why aren’t they protesting for affordable plane tickets?

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  5. But sLIE and Jolie did it for free lifetime passes to fly anywhere they want, they don’t care about anybody but themselves. Nobody in their right might would allow this boondoggle to continue but these two idiots. The poor are getting screwed again.

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  6. Maybe we can get occasional Kotex to tell sLIE to give up on airports since the world is ending in 12 years!

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  7. The airport proposal has been a cluster from the get go. Slie and the gang wants a new airport and they do not care what it will cost the taxpayers. This fiasco will definitely place the management of the city into receivership. Slie does not care as he only has a few months to develop his legacy. He would be better off going to a Subaru dealership and buying one.

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  8. What a fuckin joke. Just fix the airport we have, it works great. In and out in 30 minutes. It's the best airport in the nation. I was in Tampa last year, GAWD WHAT A CLUSTER FUCK. It looked great. I hated it. The food by the way, just like what you would expect, sucked and cost a fortune.

    No one, in their right mind, is going to grab the wife and kids, head up to the airport and have dinner.

    Jesus this is so, so fucked up.

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  9. The ugly truth? The only way the city can build the proposed airport is by selling an airline monopoly. Voters might be tempted to think the deal's cheerleaders secretly understood that from the beginning. That way overestimates the order of intelligence involved in this big brown steamer. More likely the BB brains are awakening in horror to careers sodomized by a monster they created.

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  10. Jolie is a corporate democrat not a true progressive

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  11. On, thank you insiders, who consistently misinterpret everything thanks to their utter lack of knowledge concerning municipal finance!!! Do go on!!!

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    1. City Hall working on a Sunday! Go shine Mayor Bullhorn's shoes, slave.

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  12. 9:34 And no one knows exactly what the buildings look like, what fits where, if it can fit, or what is inside the perforated white bread boxes. For every rendering, you should have been scrutinizing the differences between them, and everything obscured or outside the frame. Does not inspire much confidence anyone knows exactly what they are doing. Big difference between parenting and building an airport for billions of dollars. Voters were sold and bought a virtually irrelevant jingle. ‘Smaller & Nicer’ and very expensive does not make for a better aviation facility. And then everyone sat back and thought a bunch of premature contracts (to create momentum) and a bunch of lawyers could ‘make airports great again’.

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  13. Brought to you by Mayor Lardass and his clowncil. And now Kansas Citians have the opportunity to go an entirely new direction or replace Lardass with one of his flunkies. Remember this type of bullshit when you go to the voting booth.

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  14. 9:34 Oh, thank you city hall minion, who consistently misinterprets everything thanks to their utter lack of knowledge concerning municipal finance!!! Do go on!!!

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  15. CFRG has been warning us about this for over a year. "IT's all about control". Here is the link to the manual published by the Transportation Research Board. It goes into great detail about the structure and negotiation of Airport / Airline Rental Agreements. CFRG warned early on the main purpose of pushing for a new terminal was so the airlines could negotiate a new agreement. Under the current “compensatory” agreement, the airlines are under contract for 30 years. Under the new “residual" agreements, the term is 5 years. Which means if the airlines aren’t satisfied with the airport after 5 years, they can walk away and leave Kansas City taxpayers with a $3-4 billion dollar debt. Interesting to note, about 90% of the cities who switched to the residual agreements, now want to switch back. BE CAREFUL KANSAS CITY!

    This PDF is available at http://www.nap.edu/22912

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  16. Where are the citizen watchdogs on this? Is there no way to reel this back in? Injunction? Some way to force the city to halt this and restructure the deal back to what they promised voters? If i took on building a new house then saw "circumstances" throwing costs into the stratosphere, I'd have to stop. That's the problem with government projects. It's monopoly money to them. It's not real. Debt is a "valid financial tool" and someone else's problem. Why can't this city ever get anything right?

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  17. You can get 30% off a truck rental today at your Kansas City area U-haul! Just use the code BITCHMOANWHINE and we'll see you today!

    That way you can pack up and get the fuck out.

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  18. ^^^^ momentum

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  19. Someone send the u-haul coupon to the aviation committee, that a lawyer joke anyways.
    Dewey, Cheatem & Howe!

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  20. we need some more shops and chain restaurants. We need some more of everything and we tax payers understand that the VENDORS are the ones behind the get a NEW airport at all costs/

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  21. 11:47; it’s not bitching. It’s rational thinking. If we didn’t bitch about shit we’d be part of the UK. KC isn’t exactly a magnet for major corporations. Not 1 Fortune 500 in the metro. Sprint is all but gone. Executives sold their mansions and got the hell out on that 30% uhaul discount you mentioned. People love Cerner, but it’s small in reality, not even Fortune 500. The crime here doesn’t help either. KC is losing.

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  22. If you thought city was going to find money for you pensions, maybe you should think again.

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