MidAmerica St. Louis Airport was created to alleviate crowding at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, but has been criticized as a pork barrel project. Featured several times as a "Fleecing of America" segment on the "NBC Nightly News", it was called a "Gateway to Nowhere" by Tom Brokaw, costing taxpayers $313 million. Supporters credit MidAmerica's additional runway with saving Scott AFB from closure during BRAC 2005. They also describe MidAmerica as a "Gateway to the World", citing a new cargo terminal and customs facility designed to attract international cargo. Congestion at Lambert Airport has not been a problem since American Airlines reduced hub operations by fifty percent in 2003 and a new billion-dollar runway opened in 2006.