A terminal at Kansas City International Airport reopened Sunday afternoon, hours after it was evacuated as authorities investigated a potential threat, according to the Kansas City Aviation Department, as reported by the Associated Press.
Airport spokesman Jackson Overstreet said in an email shortly after 2 p.m. that the terminal had reopened. The evacuation began about three hours earlier after the threats.
Flights that landed during the shutdown took place on the taxiway.
Earlier, parts of Kansas City International Airport were evacuated Sunday afternoon as authorities considered a potential threat, the Kansas City Aviation Department said, as reported by the AP.
Airport spokesman Jackson Overstreet said in an email that the threat was first reported at 11:15 a.m. local time and the entire terminal was evacuated. He said flights that have since landed have been taxied.
Kansas Airport is responding
In a post, X Kansas City International Airport said: “The Kansas City Aviation Department is aware of the situation at Kansas City International Airport (MCI). As a precautionary measure, the airport terminal department has evacuated.”
Airport police are working with the FBI to document any potential threat. Update to follow, post added.
Here’s what the FBI said
FBI spokesman Dixon Land said in an email to The Associated Press that “the FBI is aware of the incident and our staff is working with airport and law enforcement officials to determine the credibility of the threat.”
Logan Hawley, 29, said he was waiting to board a plane to Texas when he noticed a swarm of police and K9 units inside the terminal.
“All of a sudden there was an airport worker who said ‘evacuate immediately,’ and people quickly got up and rushed out of there,” Hawley said.
A group of roughly 2,000 people was ushered onto the tarmac.
A comparable event occurred on New Year’s Eve in 2025, when air passengers were evacuated from an airport due to a reported “potential threat”. Authorities later confirmed the threat was not credible, The Independent reported.
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the airport was ranked as the 44th busiest in the US in 2022, handling 4.7 million passengers that year.
(With input from agencies)
