urbanSTL

Didn't realize Pittsburgh airport is also undergoing a heavy renovation. PIT is somewhat similar to STL, being in a rust belt city whose best days for passenger volume were in the 1990s. PIT peaked around 21 million (30 mil for STL) and has fallen and recovered to 9 million+ (15 mil here, non-covid).
PIT's project is kind of an inverse of STL, with PIT getting a new head house/checkin/security, and the actual concourses/gates just getting renovated. STL of course is keeping its famous headhouse/checkin area, but getting new security, concourses and gates.
PIT is under construction now. Announced 2017 with an anticipated cost of $1.1B, cost has risen to just over $1.5B. Not outrageous cost growth but something I'm sure is being watched.

https://pittransformed.com/

Here's criticism (from what looks like Pittsburgh's version of the Show Me Institute) of the subsidy Pittsburgh pays for a seasonal daily (!) BA flight to London, which appears to have been $3 million for two years in 2019, and now a quarter million for a year. After recent subsidies paid to Aer Lingus, this is very reasonable for an airport that has about the same passenger volume as Indy or KC.
https://www.alleghenyinstitute.org/dece ... authority/


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Article regarding HOK: https://www.stlpr.org/economy-business/ ... w-terminal

^There's some strong local connections between that airport in particular and the force of nature that HOK became. Minoru Yamasaki is credited as the lead on the thing, but at the time he was part of a firm called Leinweber, Yamasaki & Hellmuth. The same George Hellmuth who would later go on to help found Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum. Gyo Obata, the very important O in HOK, helped to oversee construction if I understand it correctly, which helped him to make his name and presumably gave him the experience he needed with thinshell concrete for some of his early signature projects like the Priory Chapel and the McDonnel Planetarium. HOK really came out of that airport in a lot of ways. And airports are one of their big specialties. It's really pretty magnificent to see them back there. I expect whatever they do will be respectful of the original design, artistically memorable, and built with the thought and wisdom of people who are perhaps the most experienced airport architects in the world. Heck, they even designed both the original Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and the newer Udvar-Hazy center that expands it. They know their planes. I hope (and rather expect) this will be a labor of love for a lot of people there.

STLAPTS wrote: ↑

Jan 02, 2025

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Jan 02, 2025

Auggie wrote: ↑

Jan 02, 2025

What other airports has HOK designed?

https://www.hok.com/projects/view/lagua ... terminalb/

I had no idea that they designed LaGuardia Airport Terminal B.  Incredible transformation.  In my opinion, tt went from one of the dumpiest to one of the nicest  airports in the country.  

100%.  I was shocked the 1st time I went through the new terminal there.  Truly world class.

Going to be a slow start to the year in seat growth. If we grow passengers, it will have to be by fuller planes.

^ I wonder if MDW and OAK taking hits from Southwest pulling back a lot more or simply any other remaining airlines giving up?   I think this is where STL is behind the curve on new terminal.   Southwest could probably/would have grown STL even more if the new terminal was a couple years ahead.      

dredger wrote: ↑

Jan 05, 2025

^ I wonder if MDW and OAK taking hits from Southwest pulling back a lot more or simply any other remaining airlines giving up?   I think this is where STL is behind the curve on new terminal.   Southwest could probably/would have grown STL even more if the new terminal was a couple years ahead.      

I think Covid also hurt us a lot. We were scheduled for a huge summer in 2020. Now Nashville is a base and taking some growth we probably would have gotten.

That said if you look at the losers on this they are heavy Southwest. MCI HOU OAK MDW STL BNA DAL FLL BWI AUS (although AA is part of that AUS going down)

I've been hearing ads on the radio/podcasts for Oakland International Airport lately which is interesting.

Southwest and Icelandair inked their deal today. You will be able to book flights through Baltimore to start (Denver and Nashville confirmed as being added next).

Initial bookings will be through Icelandair only. Southwest will start selling tickets once they start selling assigned seats. At that point you will be able to redeem Southwest points for flights.

More Icelandair gateways will be added later.

Southwest is announcing one more partner by the end of the year. Sounds like more than that will be added down the road.

"We're having conversations with both additional transatlantic carriers as well as transpacific carriers," Green acknowledged. "Ultimately, this is about giving customers choices, to expand the reach and breadth of the Southwest Airlines brand beyond the reach of the 737."

https://thepointsguy.com/news/southwest ... rtnership/

It will be nice once some of this get flushed out to have a bigger reach to use/earn southwest miles on. We’ll see what it means for us down the road.

Not to say I think we get Icelandair but Dallas-Love can’t do international and Midway can’t handle the planes for Europe. So that’s 2 bigger stations that won’t be used. I’d think we are located well for a connecting point that depending on what other partners they bring in, we should be in a good spot to get something from the partnerships.

Just noticed this because I booked a trip, but looks like it has been the case for a few months... Southwest Airlines flights are now shown on airline ticket aggregators like Kayak. 

^ Southwest has been on Google Flights for a while now. I use that to look for flights and a lot time WN is on there because the nonstops from STL. I think its nice to see it also on Kayak because it again helps with price comparisons on airfare.

Also, Avelo quietly eliminated its New Haven, CT flights as of January 5th. Demand just wasn't there for the twice weekly flights.

jshank83 wrote:Southwest and Icelandair inked their deal today. You will be able to book flights through Baltimore to start (Denver and Nashville confirmed as being added next).

Initial bookings will be through Icelandair only. Southwest will start selling tickets once they start selling assigned seats. At that point you will be able to redeem Southwest points for flights.

More Icelandair gateways will be added later.

Southwest is announcing one more partner by the end of the year. Sounds like more than that will be added down the road.

"We're having conversations with both additional transatlantic carriers as well as transpacific carriers," Green acknowledged. "Ultimately, this is about giving customers choices, to expand the reach and breadth of the Southwest Airlines brand beyond the reach of the 737."

https://thepointsguy.com/news/southwest ... rtnership/

It will be nice once some of this get flushed out to have a bigger reach to use/earn southwest miles on. We’ll see what it means for us down the road.

Not to say I think we get Icelandair but Dallas-Love can’t do international and Midway can’t handle the planes for Europe. So that’s 2 bigger stations that won’t be used. I’d think we are located well for a connecting point that depending on what other partners they bring in, we should be in a good spot to get something from the partnerships.

I think Midway can take the 737s FI is flying?

ldai_phs wrote: ↑

Jan 19, 2025

jshank83 wrote:Southwest and Icelandair inked their deal today. You will be able to book flights through Baltimore to start (Denver and Nashville confirmed as being added next).

Initial bookings will be through Icelandair only. Southwest will start selling tickets once they start selling assigned seats. At that point you will be able to redeem Southwest points for flights.

More Icelandair gateways will be added later.

Southwest is announcing one more partner by the end of the year. Sounds like more than that will be added down the road.

"We're having conversations with both additional transatlantic carriers as well as transpacific carriers," Green acknowledged. "Ultimately, this is about giving customers choices, to expand the reach and breadth of the Southwest Airlines brand beyond the reach of the 737."

https://thepointsguy.com/news/southwest ... rtnership/

It will be nice once some of this get flushed out to have a bigger reach to use/earn southwest miles on. We’ll see what it means for us down the road.

Not to say I think we get Icelandair but Dallas-Love can’t do international and Midway can’t handle the planes for Europe. So that’s 2 bigger stations that won’t be used. I’d think we are located well for a connecting point that depending on what other partners they bring in, we should be in a good spot to get something from the partnerships.

I think Midway can take the 737s FI is flying?

Everything I’ve read doesn’t think they can get off the runway with the amount of fuel they would need.

https://www.firstalert4.com/2025/02/04/ ... -20-years/

In 2024, over 15 million travelers moved through St. Louis Lambert International Airport, marking its highest total in over 20 years.

The 15,946,730 travelers are the highest since 2003 when just under 20.5 million passengers flew through the airport.

shadrach wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

That’s more than Raleigh Durham (15.5M) yet they have London, Paris, Iceland, Vancouver, Calgary, Panama City, Mexico City…

Not sure the status of Delta/Aeromexico partnership is standing lately as I understand that it was or could dissolve in the near future.  Bring it up because an Aeromexico MEX direct flight to and from St Louis would be a good fit in my opinion, or at least from my limited knowledge.  I also bring it up as if you ever travel into MEX and then need to get to some nearby cities such as Puebla there is great direct bus/coach service from the airport itself.   From Delta perspective, I assume they just want a steady stream of cities to feed the ATL to MEX route.   

I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic. The numbers are encouraging. The single terminal plan seems to be on track. Management is doing a good job. I'm nervous about Southwest, but I believe they can transform themselves, and some of the things everyone seems so upset about (free checked bags for instance) are honestly important parts of their business model that will help them once they get their 737-700 Max problem sorted out so long as they can keep the money mosquitos at bay.

dredger wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

shadrach wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

That’s more than Raleigh Durham (15.5M) yet they have London, Paris, Iceland, Vancouver, Calgary, Panama City, Mexico City…

Not sure the status of Delta/Aeromexico partnership is standing lately as I understand that it was or could dissolve in the near future.  Bring it up because an Aeromexico MEX direct flight to and from St Louis would be a good fit in my opinion, or at least from my limited knowledge.  I also bring it up as if you ever travel into MEX and then need to get to some nearby cities such as Puebla there is great direct bus/coach service from the airport itself.   From Delta perspective, I assume they just want a steady stream of cities to feed the ATL to MEX route.   

I would love the direct flight to Mexico City but I doubt there's enough Mexican population here. Also new flights are likely to be authorized only to Santa Lucia (northern suburbs maybe 2 hrs during peak hours to central mexico city) rather than the main airport within city limits.

It’s been about six months since I last posted on passenger projections for Lambert International Airport, and now that we have the final numbers for 2024, I wanted to share some updated projections. In 2024, the airport saw 15.95 million passengers, reflecting a 7.1% increase from the previous year. While the growth is slowing a bit compared to the post-pandemic boom, it’s clear Lambert is still on a solid path.

Looking Ahead: What Might Happen in the Next Ten Years

Bullish Projections:

• 2025: 16,983,267 (+1.04M, +6.50%)
• 2026: 18,002,263 (+1.02M, +6.00%)
• 2027: 18,992,388 (+990K, +5.50%)
• 2028: 19,942,007 (+950K, +5.00%)
• 2029: 20,839,398 (+897K, +4.50%)
• 2030: 21,672,974 (+834K, +4.00%)
• 2031: 22,431,528 (+759K, +3.50%)
• 2032: 23,216,631 (+785K, +3.50%)
• 2033: 24,029,213 (+813K, +3.50%)
• 2034: 24,870,236 (+841K, +3.50%)
• 2035: 25,740,694 (+870K, +3.50%)

Bearish Projections (Reflecting New Terminal Impact Past 2031):

• 2025: 16,823,800 (+877K, +5.50%)
• 2026: 17,580,871 (+757K, +4.50%)
• 2027: 18,196,202 (+615K, +3.50%)
• 2028: 18,651,107 (+455K, +2.50%)
• 2029: 18,930,873 (+280K, +1.50%)
• 2030: 19,214,836 (+283K, +1.50%)
• 2031: 19,503,058 (+288K, +1.50%)
• 2032: 19,990,635 (+488K, +2.50%)
• 2033: 20,490,401 (+500K, +2.50%)
• 2034: 21,002,661 (+512K, +2.50%)
• 2035: 21,527,728 (+525K, +2.50%)

dweebe wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

TRUESONJB wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

It’s been about six months since I last posted on passenger projections for Lambert International Airport, and now that we have the final numbers for 2024, I wanted to share some updated projections. In 2024, the airport saw 15.95 million passengers, reflecting a 7.1% increase from the previous year. While the growth is slowing a bit compared to the post-pandemic boom, it’s clear Lambert is still on a solid path.

Looking Ahead: What Might Happen in the Next Ten Years

Bullish Projections:

• 2025: 16,983,267 (+1.04M, +6.50%)
• 2026: 18,002,263 (+1.02M, +6.00%)
• 2027: 18,992,388 (+990K, +5.50%)
• 2028: 19,942,007 (+950K, +5.00%)
• 2029: 20,839,398 (+897K, +4.50%)
• 2030: 21,672,974 (+834K, +4.00%)
• 2031: 22,431,528 (+759K, +3.50%)
• 2032: 23,216,631 (+785K, +3.50%)
• 2033: 24,029,213 (+813K, +3.50%)
• 2034: 24,870,236 (+841K, +3.50%)
• 2035: 25,740,694 (+870K, +3.50%)

Bearish Projections (Reflecting New Terminal Impact Past 2031):

• 2025: 16,823,800 (+877K, +5.50%)
• 2026: 17,580,871 (+757K, +4.50%)
• 2027: 18,196,202 (+615K, +3.50%)
• 2028: 18,651,107 (+455K, +2.50%)
• 2029: 18,930,873 (+280K, +1.50%)
• 2030: 19,214,836 (+283K, +1.50%)
• 2031: 19,503,058 (+288K, +1.50%)
• 2032: 19,990,635 (+488K, +2.50%)
• 2033: 20,490,401 (+500K, +2.50%)
• 2034: 21,002,661 (+512K, +2.50%)
• 2035: 21,527,728 (+525K, +2.50%)

What were our TWA glory day peaks?

• 1998: 28,700,622 (+1.03M, +3.62%)
• 1999: 30,188,973 (+1.48M, +4.93%)
• 2000: 30,558,991 (+370K, +1.21%)
• 2001: 26,695,019 (-3.86M, -14.47%)