St. Louis Lambert Int. Airport [airline/hub/operations/info]

imperialmog · PostJan 06, 2017#28012017-01-06T21:49+00:00

^ And the security barrier itself just ends up as a target which actually makes it worse due to crowds and how law enforcement are a target in and of themselves.

^^Also that one guy saying 24-48 months guess on a Europe flight is likely being a conservative estimate. The stumbling blocks at this point is there isn't the craft available to start it yet and it seems there wasn't too much local push on it until last year (possibly seeing the first and decided focus on domestic holes that are now done) Though I wonder if there is a part of Southwest looking at further Terminal 2 work is in a small part due to it, since such a flight would use up one of the gates they use for arrivals and depending on timing at a key time of day for them. Since it was interesting seeing the news article mentioning some further Terminal 2 work.

dredger · PostJan 06, 2017#28022017-01-06T22:35+00:00

I'm still amazed in all my business travel that this didn't happen on a Monday morning @ as people piled up in line to get through the security checkpoint to their respective concourses and gates. I believe their was one incident a few years ago where someone walked into MSP with rifle in hand but he was apprehended quickly as it obvious from the get go he was a threat nor did he open fire right away. Almost as of the individual wanted harm to him not the public

New design at some airport of course has most of the checkpoint line going behind a glass barrier with open doors that I assume can close quickly by TSA but even then during peak travel time lot of the backup happens outside of those barriers. As Greg noted you always got a point where people will be outside of a secure perimeter before they are in it. The best that can be hoped for is design and procedures that don't group a lot of people together in confined areas outside of secure areas. However, that is tough no matter what as the Fort Lauderdale shown. In this case an attack from within by someone who went through all the security precautions.

Chalupas54 · PostJan 06, 2017#28032017-01-06T23:30+00:00

In regards to the whole Europe flight talk, I will only trust information that comes from officials at Lambert. If we solely believed what we heard through "insiders", then Lambert should have gotten BA , Lufthansa and many more by now, but obviously we all know it's not true.

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jshank83 · PostJan 18, 2017#28042017-01-18T21:46+00:00

A few more added by Southwest today. Pensacola on Saturday only (new destination) and a 2nd daily to Austin.

http://flystl.com/Newsroom/Blog/tabid/4 ... ustin.aspx

Chalupas54 · PostJan 18, 2017#28052017-01-18T21:59+00:00

^ Only a matter of time before they start the march up Concourse D

imperialmog · PostJan 20, 2017#28062017-01-20T15:53+00:00

^ That news story might be implying a bit of it. With the blurb about the airport working with Southwest on some improvements to the terminal along with some things that imply adding a few more gates. Also likely some other improvements to deal with the added capacity added lately to relieve congestion for both local passengers and those connecting here.

Interesting is it seems with some of the recent adds some of the new routes are doing well enough to warrant added frequency. There is likely other routes that could use such additions, but it could be there is either a shortage of planes to do so or gates at the right times to do it since there is definite bunching of flights by Southwest at certain times of the day.

Would be interesting to know what the most heavily travelled unserved routes are nonstop at this point and what are places that could use more service than currently offered. Since it does seem things added lately have been doing well.

pdm_ad · PostJan 22, 2017#28072017-01-22T16:41+00:00

A couple of pics to illustrate the growth of WN at STL. Nonstops from STL in May 2014:

Nonstops Jan 2017:

wabash · PostJan 22, 2017#28082017-01-22T22:19+00:00

^But what's the point of all the gains if you can no longer get a direct to beautiful Grand Rapids?

pdm_ad · PostJan 22, 2017#28092017-01-22T23:59+00:00

Haha, it's funny you say that.

I was flying from ECP to STL with a stop in HOU in early 2016 and while waiting for the flight back to STL there were a couple of FA's deadheading on that flight as well. One lived in GRR and she was lamenting the fact that the flight from STL was getting dropped and that she was going to have to connect thru MDW. She was not happy and did not like MDW at all.

matguy70 · PostJan 23, 2017#28102017-01-23T00:42+00:00

And so it has begun...

At Terminal 2 this evening for flight and at E33 ... Concourse D ... now will be E. They have started construction. It is a mess right now. Looks like they are redoing a lot... they are even working on the moving walkways. Talked to the worker and looks like they will expand half way down into Concourse D and rename it E. They areven also adding the sky club and new restaurants into the new gates. They are full force ahead since I was just here a week ago and nothing had started. Looks like this is getting a jump start for spring opening possibly?

Great sights and news.

captainjackass · PostJan 23, 2017#28112017-01-23T01:30+00:00

What's the sky club?

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matguy70 · PostJan 23, 2017#28122017-01-23T02:54+00:00

Sky club... airline club

Talked to SWA employee and it sounds like this may be a complete concourse D to E. He said that he understands it will connect the two terminals with new gates for SWA.

Announcement I am sure soon.

shadrach · PostJan 23, 2017#28132017-01-23T03:48+00:00

Glad to hear D or the New E is coming back to life! Last time I flew out a couple months ago we taxied passed 'D' and it was desolate, worn out and obviously abandoned. Not a good visitor impression when you've already flown in over abandoned swathes of the city.

matguy70 · PostJan 23, 2017#28142017-01-23T07:22+00:00

Hard to get pics... they have the area closed off with barricades and plastic opaque sheeting.

Amazingly... a week ago the purple maroon carpet walls were still there and looked fairly decent... but STL is making all of the concourses look alike and bright and light. So glad this is getting done!

jshank83 · PostJan 23, 2017#28152017-01-23T14:37+00:00

^Thanks for the pics. A gate agent over Christmas said they hoped to open by summer. Adding a Starbucks and new resturant. I think the skyclub is going by the current E31/33 gates (kind of behind the make shift bar they have now) in what is now storage. You can see the plans on the airports website in the bidding section. There are links if you go back a few pages in this. Glad to see this is actually happening

PostJan 23, 2017#28162017-01-23T14:43+00:00

captainjackass wrote: ↑
Jan 23, 2017
What's the sky club?

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It is going to be non airline affliated. You pay a usage fee to use it everytime. They haven't announced who is running it but this company has one at some airports so it should give you an idea of what it will be. This one charges $40 a day. http://www.theclubairportlounges.com/

imperialmog · PostJan 23, 2017#28172017-01-23T15:49+00:00

Well this kills the idea of tearing down D for a unified rental lot, but for a good reason. Doesn't this addition portend to even more expansion by Southwest beyond anything announced? Since they wouldn't need 3-4 gates for having only a half dozen more flights this summer than last. Unless they had some issues with gate space last summer in peak times or they just want to be ready to handle another round of expansion when planes are available. And wouldn't doing this less than a year after the last expansion a good sign of success?

rbb · PostJan 23, 2017#28182017-01-23T16:16+00:00

jshank83 wrote: ↑
Jan 23, 2017
^Thanks for the pics. A gate agent over Christmas said they hoped to open by summer. Adding a Starbucks and new resturant. I think the skyclub is going by the current E31/33 gates (kind of behind the make shift bar they have now) in what is now storage. You can see the plans on the airports website in the bidding section. There are links if you go back a few pages in this. Glad to see this is actually happening

Here's a direct link to the PDF for the Common Use Airport Club proposal request: Direct Link

Page 152 shows the location of the club.

Note that on page 23 of the request (released in November 2016) It shows E Gates going all the way up to E-40 in the current D concourse. I've not been in T2 recently, so I don't know how far that extends today but I was under the impression that E concourse only goes up to E-33 now, corrrect? At least that's what flystl.com shows:

-RBB

jshank83 · PostJan 23, 2017#28192017-01-23T16:16+00:00

imperialmog wrote: ↑
Jan 23, 2017
Well this kills the idea of tearing down D for a unified rental lot, but for a good reason. Doesn't this addition portend to even more expansion by Southwest beyond anything announced? Since they wouldn't need 3-4 gates for having only a half dozen more flights this summer than last. Unless they had some issues with gate space last summer in peak times or they just want to be ready to handle another round of expansion when planes are available. And wouldn't doing this less than a year after the last expansion a good sign of success?

The gate agent I talked to acted like southwest wanted to use E31/33 only for international southwest flights. That would be a lot of international flights though so I am assuming he misspoke. I would think you would have to have at least four per gate per day (and probably more) for that to make any sense. I don't seem them ramping up to that many internatinal flights at once. One or two to Cancun and then maybe one other place. I admit I don't know how gate rentals work though so maybe they can make it work with only a couple flights a day out of them.

PostJan 23, 2017#28202017-01-23T16:19+00:00

rbb wrote: ↑
Jan 23, 2017
I've not been in T2 recently, so I don't know how far that extends today but I was under the impression that E concourse only goes up to E-33 now, corrrect?

-RBB

They have the outside of the gates (as in outdoors facing the tarmac) through at least 38 labeled on the doors and ground. You can see them if you are on a plane at E31/33 and look over that way. But you cannot walk inside to them yet. In the new pics posted a few posts back he had to be taking pics from that pull down gate that keeps you out of the area when you walk past E33 at the next corner

matguy70 · PostJan 23, 2017#28212017-01-23T16:38+00:00

The pics were at the end of E33 into old D ... that area is a mess now and since I was on a very late flight to Florida I kind of sneaked through. There was already some holes in the plastic sheeting to look through and that's why the angles are kind of strange. It's the only thing I could get.

Southwest already has gate issues. I fly every week and many times we have to wait on the tarmac for an open gate. Especially during peak hours. Terminal 2 is already massively crowded. The connections that Southwest is pulling through St Louis needs the room. This is good news all around. In addition, Gates E31 and E33 are not just being used by Southwest. Those gates are international arrival gates with customs and immigration on the lower level in secured areas coming off of the Planes. They are being used by all inbound international flights from all Airlines now. It will remain this way and Southwest gets bumped out of those Gates when international flights arrive on another Airline now. For example, a week ago a charger was arriving International and Frontier was arriving International and both of those Gates were tied up. So this is also an issue with Southwest on having the gate slots when they need them. The airport also needs additional room for additional restaurants. This will serve well with expansion making Concourse D extinct and becoming completely Concourse E. Flights arriving on the East End of terminal T
2 in the E Concourse now have a little bit of a hike to E 33. With the new gates going into Concourse D the moving walkways will come in nicely.

Chalupas54 · PostJan 23, 2017#28222017-01-23T18:18+00:00

I love that were talking about how Lambert is over crowded. I have connected through STL twice in the last year and I always am met with so much excitement when I see the the amount of people using it. Does anyone know if the original E is reaching capacity? As much as I love the crowds, they are really extensive. Hopefully though with the new expansion, many of those crowds will be relieved. I was actually in Midway last week and overheard people on my flight (which was arriving from LGA) talking about how much they hated flying into MDW, and that they preferred flying through STL. Very exciting.

jshank83 · PostJan 23, 2017#28232017-01-23T18:59+00:00

Stats through November are out.

November was up 11.7%

12,810,391 for Jan-Nov up 9.3% total

http://flystl.com/Portals/0/Air%20Traff ... an_Nov.pdf

Chalupas54 · PostJan 23, 2017#28242017-01-23T19:40+00:00

jshank83 wrote: ↑
Jan 23, 2017
Stats through November are out.

November was up 11.7%

12,810,391 for Jan-Nov up 9.3% total

http://flystl.com/Portals/0/Air%20Traff ... an_Nov.pdf

Then we definitely broke 13 million with December.

whitherSTL · PostJan 23, 2017#28252017-01-23T20:33+00:00

That's yuge for not being a hub!

St. Louis Lambert Int. Airport [airline/hub/operations/info]

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