urbanSTL

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The Friday, May 31 severe storm that rocked the St. Louis region caused extensive damage to several airport support buildings and hangars at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport based on an initial assessments by the Airport on Saturday.



The damage will alter the exhibit plans for the Solar Impulse aircraft which is scheduled to arrive late Monday or early Tuesday morning with several days of public and private events to follow at the AIrport. The high-tech solar powered plane was scheduled to be parked in Building 2, the former McDonnell Douglas hangar on the north side of the Airfield. Solar Impulse decided to neither postpone nor to cancel the flight to St. Louis and will use its own prototype inflatable hangar in the same general area of the Airport's hangar. This structure, conceived and designed by the Solar Impulse team, will be used for the very first time in real conditions. The schedule of events will be released at a later time by the Solar Impulse mission team.

More details at the link.

-RBB

rbb wrote:Full Story

Solar Impulse decided to neither postpone nor to cancel the flight to St. Louis and will use its own prototype inflatable hangar in the same general area of the Airport's hangar.

Heard about this on NPR this morning - DFW to STL flight today. I love hearing positive things about my ‘hometown’ on national news; it’s always nice to be associated with the "future of flight" and cutting edge stuff.

Chalupas54 wrote:STL will get routes to Bermuda and San Juan

Always good to get more 'international' flights ... but it'd be nice to get business destinations as opposed to vacation spots (Mexico City or Monterrey). Either way, SWA management has their eyes cast to STL – and that’s not a bad thing.

dredger wrote:Lambert bulldozing old Concourse D, expanding Terminal 2 and slap a rental car in between moves Lambert to above average.

In your opinion, what could/should Lambert realistically do to regain a "more than above average" designation? Most aspects of what I would call "more than above average" require the critical density generated by a 500+ flight/day hub. These aspects (IMO) include better amenities (shopping and dining) inside and outside of security, more flight destinations, and possibly better transit access. STL probably won’t be a major hub again and already has a $1B runway sitting nearly unused. Is ti wise to invest in more infrastructure, striving to be a large hub? It might be better to act what it is: a medium hub (not advocating, just sayin’).
Assuming we should still shoot for the stars, is it advantageous to bulldoze one terminal to build another? Couldn’t existing space be reconfigured to open Concourse D up as T2-west?
Having been to Memphis’ new CRCF and Big (parking) Garage over memorial day, I agree a CRCF and BAG are needed… but for long term planning purposes, I am just not sure putting it on airside real estate is smart. I still push for reconfiguring metrolink and opening a BAG/CRCF near Renaissance Hotel on Natural Bridge…

dredger wrote:Yet Delta has cut its daily departures in Memphis from about 236 in 2009 to about 94 this year.

Delta announced today that they are dehubbing Memphis, reducing it to 60 departures in September. No work on if the STL-MEM flights are being cut.

Alex Ihnen wrote:^ And the PGH business community subsidized the international flights. We would have them too if the big STL industries saw value in flying direct to London or elsewhere on a regular basis.

In terms of St. Louis corporate interests, it might be more south of border then across the pond. Montsano and now with Dansforth efforts has essentially has made St. Louis one of world leading locations for plant science and South America is becoming an argiculture giant just as the Midwest.

Where I think the first opportunity might lie - Southwest decides to code share with an international carrier or two from down south. They might covet a deal where they try to get a Houston to say Mexico City flight by offering a access to their system via St. Louis. Think the likes of Aeromexico in kind gets a Mexico City to STL flight or a Brazilian Carrier with code share to Southwest US destinations (Believe Aeromexico already code shares with Legacy airline but wanted to throw out an example as I can't think many Latin American. carriers right now).

The telltale sign will be if Southwest places an order for the 787, then I think things will get interesting and STL will be a consideration without subsidies.

dredger wrote:The telltale sign will be if Southwest places an order for the 787, then I think things will get interesting and STL will be a consideration without subsidies.

I really wouldn't hold your breath for Southwest ordering the 787 (or any other widebody aircraft).

Ranking of Airports with most expensive airfares -- US DOT.

http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/airfares/pr ... le_10.html

bring jet blue in

shadrach wrote:currently at Hartsfield waiting for a flight to Midway to change planes for Lambert.

good grief I HATE post-TWA Lambert. for business I've flown in from Phoenix, LAX, ATL, Detroit, Mpls, and Portland. each time I feel like I'm departing from 2013 and landing in 1983.

oh wait, in 1983 Lambert actually had flights to London, Frankfurt, Rome and Paris.

Makes me think of my family flying to and from Mexico City out of Oakland with a change over/connection in Orange County, CA.

Oakland reminds me a lot of mini St. Louis. To accommodate Southwest it built a new terminal onto an old terminal. You get exactly that, an older terminal looking run down with a newer but now frequently used terminal getting older. Baggage claims and ticket counters are on opposite ends with a dead zone middle. Absolutely clueless where the international flights to Mexico disembark if Oakland is even getting them anymore. A lot of the legacy carriers have been dropping their flights out of Oakland. To add to the fact, the new BART sky service will end in the short term parking lot. Like St. Louis metrolink station for Terminal 2, you will have to go outside and cross the traffic.

The plus side of Oakland, very direct and easy one way access from 880. Not too difficult to get to the desired terminals, well marked/signed and short term to long term/economy parking literally in front of the airport. You can even park in economy and walk to the terminal without having to take the shuttle.

The downside to Oakland, a consolidated rental car place via shuttle bus. A shame considering the space they have to literally build one in front of the airport. However, at least business travelers only need to find one bus to one location unlike St. Louis.

Orange County is smaller but literally a new Terminal that puts Oakland to shame. The international gates where part of the main terminal and wasn't very difficult to navigate from the AirTran to Southwest. Can't say what it is like getting in and out of the airport itself. My business trips to LA is typically JetBlue to Long Beach, CA

gregl wrote:

Chalupas54 wrote:We are the 10th biggest hub for a major domestic carrier (SWA) , we have very significant infrastructure for an airport our size, and were once a major international hub. So I was really pondering the possibility of a European route out of KSTL. We have had them before with TWA and early American years, and we can support one.

The reason STL had London and Paris flights was the mega-hub TWA had, not local traffic. Cities like Pittsburgh still have European flights because they are within range of a 757 which seats about 175 passengers while STL would need a 767 which seats about 215 passengers.

Chalupas54 wrote:Some more evidence that could add to the possibility of an Int'l route is the 787. It has lead to several new int'l routes from Denver. Also with Useless Air and American's merger, American would have almost 16 routes. Is it possible for STL to get a route to London in the next 10 years? Or am I thinking to far ahead of myself?

The 787 is another aircraft which could reach Europe from STL but it too seats about 215 passengers -- which is likely more than STL could support on a daily, year-round basis.

Greg

CVG has a Paris route on a 767, yet they have less than 6 million people annually flying through, but I do think we could very well support a seasonal service.

More background on CVG to CDG here:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... 0521/1/#62

Alex Ihnen wrote:^ They have that because of the Cincy business community support.

Hmm...What major St Louis Corps. could do something similar? Emerson I think maybe is most likely to do something like that

Chalupas54 wrote:Oh, also United's SFO route is now using the 737-900ER, the largest 737.

Only for a few days at the end of June. I checked a week in July and a week in August and they are back to a mixture of A319 / A320 / 737-700 /737-800 aircraft.

Greg

^ I believe part of the equation is having access to the international gates and those being limited. It was unique seeing Delta grab a piece of Virgin Atlantic to gain more slots into London.

I also wonder in the immediate future if Latin/South America is an avenue or opportunity. St. Louis is becoming a world leader in Plant Sciences and like the Midwest, Brazil and Argentina are agricultural power houses. It would be interesting to see how the outcome would be if a STL to MEX flight that carries onto South American happened. Not sure if Aeromexico would entertain such a flight or if they even still have their seasonal Cancun flight.

Another option, Airtran has a Mexico City slot/gate and is being absorbed into Southwest. Southwest/Airtran could add a MEX flight and create a mini hub for Mexican/Latin American midwest traffic as Miami and Houston are to American and United respectively. Maybe convincing ConAgra to keeping a few Ralcorp employees around or even adding.

shadrach wrote:Maybe non-stop is out of the question due to non-hub status, but is it possible to convince an airline to have a direct flight to Europe? STL to NY or DC, then on to London, Frankfurt or Paris? Is it that difficult? That coveted? Is this getting into, i.e. landing rights and other FAA regulations I'm not aware of?

What is the difference between having a one-stop flight and connecting?

If there was a "direct" flight, you'd either have a change of aircraft anyway (MD-80 STL-JFK / 767 JFK-XXX) or need to get off the plane for security searches prior to the international leg.

Greg