Jackson, TN got a new contract for their EAS route. It gets changed to ATL only so as of June 1 there won’t be a nonstop between STL and Jackson anymore.
Also Air Choice One got acquired by Southern Airways today so they will be a new airline at the airport soon flying the current Air Choice route to Jonesboro, AR
Flew back home on United from a trip out west and had a connection in Denver. They've been doing some gate expansion work out of Terminal B and I got to see the new added gates and let me just say, it looked incredible! I'm attaching a link below to show you all what it looks like, but I'm hoping future architects and engineers involved with the new terminal at STL can take some inspiration when they come up with their design. Obviously I'd want the new terminal to be unique and reflective of our region/history/culture/etc. but with the new terminals and redeveloped airport designs taking place here in the US recently (LGA, MSY, EWR to name a couple), I'd love to see what gets borrowed from these new terminals and what we'll create unique for our new terminal.
'Click bait'-type article from bestlifeonline.com:
This Is the U.S, Airport You'll Wait at the Longest, Data Shows
They listed "which five U.S. international airports have the longest average security line wait times."
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2) St. Louis Lambert International Airport
In second place is St. Louis Lambert International Airport, where the average wait time is 28 minutes and 48 seconds.
"
FWIW - 1st (last) place was Palm Beach International Airport at "the average wait time exceeds 36 minutes"
I flew SWA to ft. Myers on Friday. All flights to Florida were grounded for 2 hours due to a SpaceX rocket launch so the stewards on our flight had plenty of time to talk to us. One of the things they advertised to the “folks from mid Missouri” is how their next trip they should go to MCI, their new terminal, and expanding international offerings, especially to Mexico and the Caribbean. I Think the new MCI airport is going to eat away at StL numbers and they made it clear STL doesn’t have room for that kind of expansion.
I flew SWA to ft. Myers on Friday. All flights to Florida were grounded for 2 hours due to a SpaceX rocket launch so the stewards on our flight had plenty of time to talk to us. One of the things they advertised to the “folks from mid Missouri” is how their next trip they should go to MCI, their new terminal, and expanding international offerings, especially to Mexico and the Caribbean. I Think the new MCI airport is going to eat away at StL numbers and they made it clear STL doesn’t have room for that kind of expansion.
I’m personally not all that worried. At least Southwest wise. Southwest will definitely add routes there with the new terminal. They have been cutting more than adding at KC, even pre covid so some of those should probably come back. There are some they should have now but can’t due to not being able to run connections. But they are half our size right now. Southwest is taking 10 gates there. They have 17 here. Denver is going thru a massive expansion and I think that limits the growth they can have. They will add more to Denver where they can first. Not to mention being bracketed by the Texas stations to the south, then big stations of MDW/Stl/BNA to the east. I’m just not sure how much growth they really can fit in there.
I think Delta could be the one to make a move there. They have MSP close-ish but really nothing else around. Not a full blown hub or anything, but a focus city just based on their current route map with Delta and they have a huge delta sky club going in.
But anyway, I don’t mean to go on about KC in here.
Do I think our growth could be slowed from what it would be if KC didn’t have a new terminal, and we had a better setup for growth? Sure. Do I think they take anything away from us? No. I think we could easily handle 175ish flights for them if they expand the last set of gates that could be added before it’s to stretched out. So that would be about 40% more growth. Which realistically probably isn’t hampering us any thru 2030.
One other note: Take anything from flight attendants or pilots with a huge grain of salt. I’ve been told by many of them they are the last to know anything and usually it’s all rumors without a whole lot of substance. I’ve been told so much by them that rarely pans out.
My two cents on what would keep SWA from adding flights is the long term plan for a new single linear concourse & updated facilities goes nowhere fast and the region remains a slow growth region. Its good to plan, study and vet for the region believes are the best path forward on major infrastructure but its worse to do nothing when such infrastructure start going way beyond its lifespan (Concourse A to D), slowly becomes obsolete in its function (A legacy hub airport layout now having most flights coming from a point to point domestic carrier) and or some of its function by its users not really desired or lacking (Airport that sees a lot more curbside ingress & egress, on site parking vs old TWA hub w a lot of plane to plane foot traffic) .
^^I don't really know anything, but I would be quite shocked if this plan comes to naught. There's too much momentum behind this now. The last time they released this many plans and conducted this many surveys was W1W under Griggs. This one feels like the real deal. (It also feels very thoughtful and cautious. Which . . . honestly, W1W felt the same way at the time. Predictions aren't always the best, particularly those that rely on past performance as an indicator of future growth. But hey, they're right a lot more often than not.)
I flew SWA to ft. Myers on Friday. All flights to Florida were grounded for 2 hours due to a SpaceX rocket launch so the stewards on our flight had plenty of time to talk to us. One of the things they advertised to the “folks from mid Missouri” is how their next trip they should go to MCI, their new terminal, and expanding international offerings, especially to Mexico and the Caribbean. I Think the new MCI airport is going to eat away at StL numbers and they made it clear STL doesn’t have room for that kind of expansion.
One other note: Take anything from flight attendants or pilots with a huge grain of salt. I’ve been told by many of them they are the last to know anything and usually it’s all rumors without a whole lot of substance. I’ve been told so much by them that rarely pans out.
Remember when that rumor went around about Alaska opening a large St. Louis hub based on a rumor from a flight attendant or a pilot or something?
This one probably came from a KC based flight crew lol.
Glitzy new airports don't make airlines expand. Lower landing and operation fees and O&D traffic do. STL is a larger market overall for O&D and Southwest not only depends on connection loads in STL it depends on O&D loads helping fill their planes as well. Southwest has continually said their expansion in STL is easy and their connection feed in their own terminal is fueling their growth here as well.
I am sure KC will get some new flights from SWA and I am sure they will get some more connection traffic because they will be able to have a better connection operation in the new terminal. However, they will only gain 2 more gates than they have now and still be in a shared terminal. With their "hubs" in Denver on the west, Dallas on the south , STL on the east (and numerous other airports in their beeline with SWA service ...Wichita, Omaha, Tulsa and Oklahoma City) the central west USA has a good amount of small cities with service for O&D in all of those markets without having to drive to MCI. Wichita has an amazing new airport that is much nicer than the new single terminal IMO that KC is getting, but service isn't going to increase at ICT just because they have a shiny new terminal... airlines need to see the O&D and lower fees.
Southwest has long said their operations in STL are well supported and money makers. Covid has crushed their growth (like most airlines) and cuts are being made because of pilot/crew shortages, less capacity and fleet cuts/orders. It is going to take some time to rebound and they will put planes back into the markets where capacity is needed.
Side note... flew to ICT Wichita for conference this week and the flights were sold out. STL plays a huge roll in SWA's midwest / midsouth smaller cities as a connection hub. Wichita, Des Moines, Tulsa, OK City and Omaha are well connected to SWAs network though STL. Most of those cities would not connect on shorter run flights to MCI for connections. SWA does not care to do flights less than 250-300 miles before a connection. It is expensive and most consumers do not like it. Since southwest does not use smaller commuter / regional jets (or regional commuter airlines to feed their network) using their all 737 fleet does not adhere well to shorter runs financially or feasibly. So these connections going to MCI instead of STL (or either MDW or BNA) doesn't make sense.
One more thing I want to add. Commerce and Business. STL has many Fortune 500 companies and several of the largest privately owned corporations in the USA. KC has no Fortune 500 companies, yet I am not saying that the city doesn't have good and some large companies. Money talks and in STL's position it feeds the industry much better than across the state.
I was on SWA coming from Wichita as well, and it was cool to see St. Louis as one of the few cities listed on the departure board for the entire airport. The flight was nearly sold out and many people were connecting through to Tampa via STL.
Southwest is cutting/reworking their summer schedule. Pretty good cuts here. Goes from 122 a day to 103. Mostly west coast flying as they cut out longer segments due to staffing issues. June 5-11 was reworked last night. I expect 12th-18th will get it tonight and so on the next few days thru at least June. Might keep going thru July/August or wait a bit on those.
Either way if you have summer tickets expect an email, you can change your flight to another one within 14 days for free if you don’t like the one they give you. Or get a refund (even if it’s WGA fares)
^^ Received email notification last night that the nonstop from STL - SRQ on 7/3 has been cut so they are out to at least early July at this point.
Not STL specific, but I believe United cut their SRQ-ORD nonstop for the summer, as well. Would have thought flights to leisure destinations like SRQ would be a priority for airlines.
^^ Received email notification last night that the nonstop from STL - SRQ on 7/3 has been cut so they are out to at least early July at this point.
Not STL specific, but I believe United cut their SRQ-ORD nonstop for the summer, as well. Would have thought flights to leisure destinations like SRQ would be a priority for airlines.
What does United run between SRQ and ORD? Maybe all they can do is run bigger stuff between ORD and TPA?
^^ Received email notification last night that the nonstop from STL - SRQ on 7/3 has been cut so they are out to at least early July at this point.
Not STL specific, but I believe United cut their SRQ-ORD nonstop for the summer, as well. Would have thought flights to leisure destinations like SRQ would be a priority for airlines.
What does United run between SRQ and ORD? Maybe all they can do is run bigger stuff between ORD and TPA?
I don't remember what my specific aircraft was scheduled to be (guessing 737 or 757), but I had a flight from SRQ to ORD in June that got rerouted to EWR and then ORD and then my final destination. Conveniently, our plans changed anyway, so I cancelled & rebooked out of TPA with Delta.
With JetBlue coming in at the 11th hour with a new proposal to buy Spirit, I'm hopeful that this will finally bring JetBlue into the STL market it has so conveniently overlooked and expand its presence all across the Midwest and the South. Having said that, I'd be curious to know what expanded flight options this possible merger would bring to the STL market. Perhaps more expanded coastal direct flights to markets currently unserved or underserved (JFK, SFO for example)? Greater access and perhaps additional competition with Southwest to leisure destinations in the Caribbean/Central America? If this proposal were to be approved, hopefully it means that the new JetBlue/Spirit airline can continue growing its presence here given Spirit is expanding their footprint here.
Wonder what this will mean for AA and JetBlue's Northeast Alliance... safe to assume it's more or less dead?
Was flying back from Austin today and walked down a few gates to take of pic of this. I had forgotten how much bigger they are in person. 51 days til it is here.
