Wichita ? The latest airport development plan in Wichita aims to make the city a hub for air travelers from across Kansas.

Organizers of the four-year, $52.5 million “Fair Fares II” plan say those passengers would then have access to Mid-Continent Airport’s expanding service and low fares.

Lawmakers from south-central Kansas were briefed on the plan Monday by Wichita airport development director Steve Flesher.

The proposal is the second phase of a Wichita initiative called Fair Fares that brought discount carriers AirTran Airways, Frontier JetExpress and Allegiant Airlines to Mid-Continent.

Now officials want to expand Fair Fares to improve air service around the state along with expanding low-fare service from Wichita to more of the nation’s large airports.

The goal of the second phase of Fair Fares is to secure nonstop service to Wichita’s top 20 destinations, have low-fare competition to all of Wichita’s top 50 destinations, triple the number of passengers using Mid-Continent, and bolster air and ground transportation in other Kansas communities so they can take advantage of Wichita’s fares and service.

About 1.5 million passengers used Mid-Continent in 2003.

The plan calls for attracting new nonstop service from Wichita to Washington, D.C., Orlando, Fla., and New York and expanding service to Atlanta, Chicago and Denver. It proposes to turn AirTran Airways into a dominant carrier in Wichita.

Eventually, officials hope to recruit Southwest Airlines to Wichita.

The largest share of the $52.5 million would be spent on revenue guarantees to entice airlines to expand nonstop service from Wichita, Flesher said. Money also would be spent for promotions, market development, airline recruitment and aviation consulting services.

It’s too early to say where the funding would come from, Flesher said. But two possible sources could be the city of Wichita and the state’s economic development initiative fund, fed by Kansas Lottery revenues.