Des Moines lawyer Mark Feldmann, a member of the Des Moines International Airport board, keeps hearing from those of you who wonder where Concourse B is at the airport. You come through security, you take a left, you have Concourse A and the new Arugula & Rye restaurant, which many of you apparently haven’t discovered yet. Go to the right, and you are on Concourse C. Feldmann asked airport chief Kevin Foley what happened to Concourse B. Foley noted that there was a plan for the missing concourse at one time, but the growth of the runways and aprons and other airport necessities took the space in the middle that had been envisioned for Concourse B. Apparently, the other two already had been named, so Concourse C couldn’t be called Concourse B any more than the amplifier on “This is Spinal Tap” could just call the “11” setting “10.”

Feldman had an idea for the AWOL Concourse B moniker: “It would be a great name for the bar.”

Other airport tidbits:

• Foley tried to talk Southwest Airlines into adding service to Denver, but he couldn’t read the poker face. Company officials told him he was asking the right question. He also met with United Airlines — hoping for a direct flight to LAX in Los Angeles. United officials told him not to hold his breath. Foley said he will continue pitching. 

• The airport will run a full emergency drill on Aug. 25, so don’t freak if you see unusual things down there. Foley mentioned the makeup artists will be bringing the A game, making some “victims” look like they have pencils sticking out of their necks. This caused a board member or two to cringe during an airport authority meeting. 

• The Global Entry folks will be back in town June 12-14, so watch for details on how you, too, can get back into the country by answering a few questions on a computer and getting your fingerprints scanned.

• The airport is about two years ahead of federal projections on passenger growth.

• Partly because of that growth — which has run 5 percent a year instead of the projected 2.5 percent — waits at security have run as much as 45 to 50 minutes during spring break and other peak times. Passengers in larger airports would consider that nothing, but Foley points out we are spoiled. He’s lucky to get you to show up an hour or so before your flight, and he wants you to allow 90 minutes or more. Airport board member Feldman says the public is not keeping up with what’s happening at the terminal. “The public perception is out of whack with reality,” he said. 

• The airport ranks as the 83rd-largest in the nation now, up from No. 87 in 2008.