Was there ever discussion of an on-terminal hotel? I know that's usually the feature of the big internationals like DFW, ORD, SFO etc: but there are still some at midsized airports like Pittsburgh and Tampa.
They could put one where T2 is. That area still needs to be worked out
Latest I’ve heard is it may go to Charlotte instead of Indy (or Raleigh). Sounds like our incentive offer isn’t as high as othersjshank83 wrote: ↑Oct 04, 2024Same boat for me. I’ve heard nothing on our end. That said supposedly there was an RFP due Sept 30th. So it’s feasible all the airports picked don’t even know yet. Nashvilles announcement might have been moved up from next week to counter the Iceland air announcement they had last week so they could get bookings open.dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑Oct 04, 2024Generally before the announcement there is stuff in the background, like with Lufthansa I knew weeks before and I’m not hearing any chatter like that this time. Now that doesn’t mean it won’t happen, they could all be keep it close to the vest
I feel like this is a very different process from Lufthansa’s.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... light.html
Nashville – not St. Louis – scores nonstop flight to Dublin
Nashville – not St. Louis – scores nonstop flight to Dublin
Aer Lingus will begin nonstop service between Dublin and BNA next year.
Frank Grealish / IrishAirPics.com frank@irishairpics.com
By Adam Sichko and Jacob Kirn – St. Louis Business Journal
Oct 7, 2024
Nashville International Airport has won yet another nonstop route to Europe.
Airport officials in Nashville revealed a new flight to Dublin, Ireland, on Friday morning — marking the airport's second new nonstop announcement in as many months. The deal with Aer Lingus arrives almost simultaneously with the news just days ago of a nonstop route that Icelandair will fly to Reykjavik.
And just like that, BNA has tripled its nonstop overseas offerings. British Airways flies daily to and from London, a connection that has existed for most of the last six years (save for a pause during the early stage of the pandemic).
The St. Louis Business Journal reported last week that St. Louis officials have sought a nonstop Dublin flight on Aer Lingus, though it wasn't clear what stage any bid was in.
A spokesman for St. Louis Lambert International Airport declined to comment Monday on the Nashville announcement.
St. Louis' only nonstop to Europe is to Frankfurt, Germany, on Lufthansa. It runs three days a week. Prior to Lufthansa's service, which launched in 2022, Lambert had not had nonstop European service since 2003, when American Airlines discontinued a route to London. Lambert had nonstops to Iceland, an island sometimes considered to be part of Europe, from May 2018 to January 2019, when WOW Air ended the service. The airline later shut down.
|Aer Lingus issued this image in its press release announcing the new flight. Pictured at Dublin Airport is Irish country music star Nathan Carter (center), alongside Aer Lingus crew members Lorraine Cullen (left) and Anna Moore (right), celebrating the announcement of Aer Lingus’ new direct route to Nashville.
Naoise Culhane
Aer Lingus will fly an Airbus A321XLR on the Nashville route, which is set to begin on April 12, 2025. Initially, the route will fly on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The flight will take roughly eight to nine hours, depending which direction passengers are flying.
Passengers can vacation in Dublin or connect to 22 European destinations including Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam and Berlin.
"This flight is transformational for our connectivity not just to Ireland but all of Europe," said Mark Ezell, commissioner of Tennessee's tourism department. He called the flight "a perfect fit for us."
"With our third nonstop flight to Europe, the sky's the limit on what [business] we'll be able to drive," Ezell said.
Adding more nonstop transatlantic flights has been a top objective for officials at the Metro Nashville Airport Authority as the Nashville region has boomed both in population and economic activity.
"We've been building and saving for the last seven years," CEO Doug Kreulen told the Nashville Business Journal in early September.
That work includes building a set of six gates intended for international flights that opened one year ago, as part of the airport's ongoing multibillion-dollar expansion. The international gates sit atop a massive underground facility for customs and immigration services.
The "saving" part of Kreulen's comment refers not just to the authority's stronger finances but also the incentive fund created to help entice new routes, both domestic and international.
In this case, the fund will allow Aer Lingus to live rent-free at BNA for three years: The authority will waive its normal airline fees and use the fund to cover those expenses. The fund also will pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of marketing and advertising to attract attention to the new route.
The fund's current balance was $8.8 million, before commitments made to Icelandair. The amount of those incentives has not been made public. The state of Tennessee and the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. also contribute incentives for certain airline recruiting efforts.
In an August memo to board members, Kreulen said the airport authority has been "saving incentive funds for multiple years for just this possibility, two wins at the same time." (That memo identified Aer Lingus and also Germany's Discover Airlines as prospects near the finish line. Currently, it appears Discover will not be flying out of Nashville in 2025.).
The airport authority does not receive funding from Metro government, generating most of its revenue from airline fees, parking, concessions and car rentals. The authority also receives state and federal grants.
"We could not be more happy … and there's definitely more coming next year, I'm pretty darn confident," Kreulen said at the Oct. 4 press conference.
In a March interview, Ireland's tourism minister Catherine Martin sounded encouraged by the prospect of adding a nonstop to Nashville. On a visit to Music City, Martin appointed local businesswoman Amy Seigenthaler Pierce as her government's first Honorary Consul in Tennessee.
BNA has been vying for an Aer Lingus route for at least a year. Airport officials encountered multiple issues along the way, including a dispute between the airline and its pilots that slowed Nashville's momentum.
International travel has reached record highs, with an average of 4,352 people each day leaving Nashville for an international destination or arriving in Music City on such a route.
Almost 1.6 million international passengers arrived or departed from BNA in its last fiscal year, a 12% increase over the prior year. That increase outpaced the airport's overall passenger growth of 8.4%.
Europe is the most popular region, with about 1,200 international passengers traveling to or arriving from such a destination on the average day at BNA.
St. Louis' largest airlines serving Lambert
Passengers Boarded in 2023
September international loads (customs numbers)
Lufthansa Frankfurt 94.39%
Air Canada Toronto 78.44%
Air Canada Montreal 72.46%
Lufthansa Frankfurt 94.39%
Air Canada Toronto 78.44%
Air Canada Montreal 72.46%
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I saw this on the news. From what I gather, the reason this blew up is someone at Lufthansa was quoted as claiming 'the Jews' refused or failed to comply with policy. Their connection from Frankfurt to Budapest was cancelled citing some ?mechanical? issue?
This doesn't relate to Lambert (to my knowledge).
This doesn't relate to Lambert (to my knowledge).
chris fuller wrote: ↑Oct 16, 2024STL Jews dont patronize lufthansa!!
Well I hate to tell ya, but we are. We fly STL to FRA to Tel Aviv (or now because of the war) STL to FRA to Cypress and then to TLV.
This was an employee crew issue not an entire airline issue. Just like many airlines in the USA have been fined for discrimination.
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This incident was also in 2022 - before Lufthansa was serving St. Louis. They also settled with the customers in advance of this fine. Here's to hoping it was an expensive lesson learned and won't happen again.
Wouldn't take too much from a singular incident.chris fuller wrote: ↑Oct 16, 2024STL Jews dont patronize lufthansa!!
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Would hope that Germans (especially) have already learned their lesson about discriminating against Jews.STLCityMike wrote: ↑Oct 17, 2024This incident was also in 2022 - before Lufthansa was serving St. Louis. They also settled with the customers in advance of this fine. Here's to hoping it was an expensive lesson learned and won't happen again.
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Indianapolis getting Air Lingus flight starting early 2025:
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indianap ... -2025/amp/
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indianap ... -2025/amp/
Incentive package totaling $17M for four times a week on a narrow body aircraft to Ireland. If this is what STL was competing against, STL dodged a bullet.TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote:Indianapolis getting Air Lingus flight starting early 2025:
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indianap ... -2025/amp/
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That’s a ton of money for a flight to not even one of Europe’s 10 busiest airports.
Would rather increase service to Frankfurt or spend that money attracting flight to London, Paris or Madrid
Would rather increase service to Frankfurt or spend that money attracting flight to London, Paris or Madrid
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Can someone with more knowledge of the process than me explain this 2025 February deadline to secure $1.2B from the federal government? I hear it’s a true make or break deadline as to whether this build out proceeds or not.
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It wouldn't surprise me if a Donald Trump presidency would mean the end of our airport renovation and Green Line dreams.
Not sure how it would matter for the airport unless you think people stop flying and passenger projections plummet. Which I doubt happens. Funding isn’t depending on some kind of big federal grant.RockChalkSTL wrote: ↑Oct 22, 2024It wouldn't surprise me if a Donald Trump presidency would mean the end of our airport renovation and Green Line dreams.
Don't know how I missed this but it looks like St. Louis Lambert had a delegate attend Routes World 2024 in Bahrain.
Lol, what an ignorant comment.chris fuller wrote: ↑Oct 16, 2024STL Jews dont patronize lufthansa!!
STL Jew living in TLV who has flown TLV-FRA-STL a few times. Wish they would get some newer planes. Still prefer AC through YYZ because of the crappy old planes they put on the FRA-STL route.
In this scary world, Germans are like #2 after diaspora Iranians as our best allies. Have felt a lot more discrimination at old favorite St. Louis bars/restaurants (when saying I live in TLV) than anything I've ever felt in Germany.
Amen. For that kind of money would have to be London, Istanbul, Dubai, or Tokyo.addxb2 wrote: ↑Oct 21, 2024Incentive package totaling $17M for four times a week on a narrow body aircraft to Ireland. If this is what STL was competing against, STL dodged a bullet.TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote:Indianapolis getting Air Lingus flight starting early 2025:
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indianap ... -2025/amp/
Dublin is like a half step up from Iceland.
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RockChalkSTL wrote: ↑Oct 22, 2024It wouldn't surprise me if a Donald Trump presidency would mean the end of our airport renovation and Green Line dreams.
This incredibly insightful. Thank you.