What Happened To The Airport’s Moving Walkways?
Finnish manufacturer says the mechanical walkway is finished, with a shockingly high replacement cost.
A moving walkway at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. Photo taken July 18, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.
You’ve probably never thought about how much those mechanical sliding walkways at airports cost. As it turns out, they cost a lot.
At Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE), one of the four moving walkways connecting the daily parking structure to the main terminal is broken and has been for quite some time.
A sign posted in the airport claims it would cost $12 million to replace.
Where did that figure come from?
The $12 million figure is the quote from the manufacturer to replace all four walkways, according to a spokesperson for the airport. They are manufactured and maintained by the Kone Corporation, a Finnish multinational corporation specializing in elevators and escalators.
Kone officials assessed the walkways and determined they are beyond their useful life. They incorporate parts that are no longer manufactured. The walkways, said the airport, have been a challenge to maintain for years.
The corridor they occupy, fortunately, is not highly trafficked. Depending on where you park you might never see them. And the corridor itself isn’t very long, only 600 feet.
The airport hasn’t planned to replace them. The $12 million quote supplied by Kone isn’t in its five-year infrastructure plan. It does, though, have $219,000 budgeted for planning, which will develop an idea of what to do with the hallway and its aging mechanical walkways.
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Which terminal is this moving walkway supposed to be operational? No such terminal in “C”!!
@mpbehar it’s not in the terminals at all, it’s in the daily parking / rental car garage, on one of the higher floors that has the crosswalk over the departures road.
It’s to help accelerate walking from the furthest distances in the parking garage.
I’m surprised they don’t try to do something more creative here.
There’s four walkways, two move towards the terminal and the others move towards the garage.
Surely they could cannibalize one or two of them to at least ensure the ones headed towards the terminal remain functional?
Sometimes every second counts, and these are indeed handy.
Also that price quote is from Kone. Have they gotten quotes from any other moving walkway companies? I guess they’ll find out after that planning study.