Lambert-St. Louis International Airport

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport

STL map.svg
IATA: STL – ICAO: KSTL – FAA: STL
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner City of St. Louis
Serves Greater St. Louis, Missouri
Location Unincorporated St. Louis County 10 miles NW of St. Louis
Elevation AMSL 605 ft / 184.4 m
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
12R/30L 11,019 3,359 Concrete
12L/30R 9,003 2,744 Concrete
11/29 9,000 2,743 Concrete
6/24 7,602 2,317 Concrete
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations 272,585
Passenger volume 15,200,000
Cargo tonnage
Area (acres) 2,800
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1]

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (IATA: STL, ICAO: KSTL) is the primary airport for St. Louis, Missouri, United States and the surrounding area.

The airport lies outside the city limits and is owned and operated by the City of St. Louis. Lambert- St. Louis International Airport serves over 88 non-stop national and international destinations. In 2006 over 15.3 million passengers traveled through the airport. Lambert is primarily served by aircraft such as the Boeing 737, Boeing 757, McDonnell Douglas DC-9, McDonnell Douglas MD-80, Airbus A320, Airbus A319, and regional jets such as the Embraer 145 and Embraer 190 and also the Canadair Regional Jet. Connection traffic through Lambert on American Airlines and Southwest Airlines continues to grow as well.[2]. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport serves as a hub for American Airlines and its regional affiliate, AmericanConnection and as a hub for Great Lakes Airlines. Southwest Airlines also has a large presence at the airport, however its not enough to be considered a focus city. The airport is also home to an American Airlines maintenance ramp and the 131st Fighter Wing, which will be gone in July 2009.

Contents

History

Main terminal
Control tower and main terminal
131st Fighter Wing and American Airlines Maintenance Ramp At Lambert Airport

The airport was originally a balloon launching base named Kinloch Field. The Wright brothers and their Exhibition Team visited the field while touring with their aircraft, and Theodore Roosevelt flew on one of their aircraft while he was visiting, becoming the first U.S. president to fly.

In 1920, Major Albert Bond Lambert purchased the field and developed it into an airport with hangars and a terminal. Charles Lindbergh, whose first pilot job was flying airmail for Robertson Airlines at the airport, departed the airport for New York about a week prior to his record-breaking flight to Paris in 1927. Later that year, Lambert sold the airport, by then known as Lambert Field, to the City of St. Louis. Lambert thus became the first municipally-owned airport in the United States.[3]

In the late 1920s Lambert Field became the first airport with an air-traffic control system. At that time the system consisted of waving flags to communicate with pilots. The first controller's name was Archie League.[4]

Before World War II, Robertson Airlines, Marquette Airlines, and Eastern Air Lines provided passenger service to St. Louis. During the war, the airport became a manufacturing base for McDonnell Aircraft and Curtiss-Wright. After the war, Minoru Yamasaki was commissioned to design a new passenger terminal at Lambert. Completed in 1956, the four-domed terminal design inspired future terminals at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris.[3]

In the 1970s St. Louis city officials proposed replacing the airport with a new airport in suburban Illinois. Missouri residents strongly objected and Lambert underwent a $290 million expansion that increased its operational capacity by 50 percent including lengthening of runways and increasing gate capacity to 81. The proposed MidAmerica St. Louis Airport ultimately was built in Mascoutah, Illinois and opened in 1997 and now acts as a reliever airport to Lambert although it has no major carriers and has been derided as a pork barrel.

Trans World Airlines (TWA) moved its hub from Kansas City International Airport in 1982 and became Lambert's dominant carrier. The St. Louis hub survived TWA's bankruptcy in 1993, and by the late 1990s it was the dominant hub for TWA. After American Airlines (AA) bought TWA and merged its flight operations in 2001, Lambert became a reliever for AA's existing hubs at Chicago O'Hare and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Since the merger, transatlantic service is no longer available directly from Lambert. AA transferred many mainline TWA routes to American Connection, a group of affiliated regional carriers. After the 2003 cutbacks, AA introduced American Eagle service at its St. Louis hub in May 2005. Unlike American Connection, American Eagle is wholly owned by AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle.

American Airlines Flight 2470 (AAL2470) was the first commercial airliner to land on Runway 11-29, the newest runway at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. The Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Expansion Program website posted pictures of the April 13, 2006 Runway 11-29 opening ceremonies.

In late December 2006, AA announced that new services would be offered from the St. Louis hub, operated by mainline equipment (i.e. larger American Airlines aircraft) due to an increased demand from business travelers that regional jets could not efficiently sustain. New routes include Austin, Boston, Raleigh/Durham, and San Antonio. At the end of 2007, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is American Airlines' fourth-largest hub, behind Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, Chicago O'Hare, and Miami International Airport. Southwest Airlines also maintains a major presence at Lambert.

In 2006 the United States Air Force announced plans to make the 131st Fighter Wing Into The 131st Bomb Wing. The 18 F-15C Aircraft would for the most part be relocated to the 120th Fighter Wing In Montana. The Pilots and crew would be relocated to Whiteman AFB to fly and maintain the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber, and be the first ANG Wing to fly it. As of October 2008 11 F-15's remain, and the unit will be finished moving in late July 2009.

Facilities

STL FAA Airport Diagram

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport covers 2,800 acres (1,133 ha) and has four runways:

Terminals:

Concourses, airlines, and destinations

Main terminal

Concourse A

Concourse A has 16 Gates: A2 - A6, A8 - A10, A12, A14 - A19, A21

Concourse B

Concourse B has 10 Gates: B2 - B4, B6 - B8, B10, B12, B14, B16

Concourse C

Note: Concourse C has a Customs/Immigration area located under gate C32. Concourse C has 30 Gates: C1 - C3, C5 - C10, C12, C15 - C19, C21, C23 - C25, C27 - C36, C38

Concourse D

Concourse D has 15 Gates: D2, D4, D6, D12, D14, D16, D18, D20, D22, D24, D26, D30, D32, D34, D36

(This concourse is mainly vacant and serves as a walkway between Concourses B/C and also Concourse E)

East Terminal

Concourse E

Note: Concourse E has an International Customs/Immigration area located near Gate E33

Concourse E has 15 Gates: E4, E6, E8, E10, E12, E14, E16, E18, E20, E22, E24, E25, E29, E31, E33. The East Terminal's primary carrier is Southwest Airlines.

Air cargo

Lambert St. Louis International Airport is currently served by two Air Cargo Airlines.

ABX Air is currently closing/downsizing operations due to DHL's Shuttering of U.S. Operations.

Passengers

In 2000, 30,558,991 passengers traveled through the airport. Passenger numbers dropped to 13 million in 2004. Passenger numbers grew to over 15.2 million passengers in 2006.[2] Lambert-St. Louis International Airport continues to see increase in passenger traffic. September 2007 showed more growth in the number of boarding passengers with a 4.2 percent increase over September 2006. Year to date, nearly 5.9 million passengers have originated from Lambert, a 1.2 percent increase over the same 9-month period in 2006. Also in 2007 American Airlines boarded 190,570 passengers in September. Frontier Airlines showed the biggest gain in boarding passengers, also called enplanements, among the major national airlines with 12,139 passengers originating from St. Louis in September. That's a 57 percent increase over the same month in 2006. International Charter Airlines service increased 11.2 percent in September.

Airline lounges

Located at the B/C/D connector, this Admirals Club is large. The club features seating for 244. Club highlights include bar/snack area, basic ticketing functions, espresso bar, three private conference rooms, and complimentary use of PCs (6), dataports, copier, printer and paper shredder.

Located on the lower level of the Main Terminal next to baggage claim carousel #M6, this USO airport facility is one of the largest in the country, serving over 120,000 military men and women each year. The airport facility never closes.

Public transportation

MetroLink

Metrolink station at the airport

The airport is served by two MetroLink light rail stations directly serving downtown St. Louis with one station at both the Main and East Terminals. Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) are located on the platforms of both stations to purchase two-hour passes (one-ride ticket) and day passes. Fares purchased at the airport are slightly higher than fares purchased elsewhere in the system.

Fares:

MetroBus

The Lambert Bus Port provides Metrobus Service to surrounding areas. The bus port is located adjacent to the intermediate parking lot, accessible via the tunnel connecting the airport main terminal.

Routes Serving Lambert Bus Port:

Fares:

See[7] for more information.

Expansion - construction

During the late 1990s Lambert Field was ranked as high as the eighth busiest airport in the USA in terms of operations (not passengers). This was due to TWA existing as a major hub, Southwest Airlines having significant traffic, and due to a significant amount of commuter traffic to smaller cities in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa and Kentucky. Whenever weather required the use of instrument landings, the traffic capacity was markedly reduced as for practical purposes only one runway could be used. This often resulted in large numbers of delays and cancellations at Lambert. Even in good weather, there could be delays at peak hours, and Lambert briefly redesignated the taxiway immediately north of runway 12L-30R as runway 13-31 and used it for commuter and general aviation traffic. Runway 11/29 was conceived on this and the basis of traffic projections made in the 1980s and 1990's that warned of impending strains on the airport and the national air traffic system as a result of predicted growth in traffic at the airport.[8] The $1 billion runway expansion was designed in part to allow for simultaneous operations on parallel runways in bad weather. Construction began in 1998, and continued even after traffic at the airport declined following the 9/11 attacks, and the purchase of Trans World Airlines by American Airlines in April 2001 and subsequent cuts in flights to the airport by American Airlines in 2003.[9][10] The project required the relocation of seven major roads and the destruction of approximately 2,000 homes in Bridgeton, Missouri.[11][12] In addition to providing superfluous extra capacity for flight operations at the airport, use of the runway is shunned by fuel and time- conscious operations due to its distance from the terminals.[13]

Airport officials are drafting plans for terminal modernization at this time. The program, known as the "Airport Experience", is designed to help make the airport more responsive to the needs of passengers. Working with existing facilities, the program will modernize Lambert's terminals. In February 2007, Lambert-St. Louis International announced the largest renovation in the airport's history, which will include overhaul just about everything at the Main Terminal, from road signs to window panes. There will be more stores and restaurants, terrazzo floors and pedestrian bridges from the parking garage to the ticketing area. A domed glass canopy will arch above sidewalks and roadways, protecting visitors from bad weather. The $105 million job will be completed in 2012.

Aircraft production

McDonnell Douglas had its world headquarters adjacent to the airport. The facilities, now run by Boeing, is now the headquarters for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. One of its most well-known production items is the F-15 Eagle still being produced (at a slow rate) today. Other aircraft include the F-18 Super Hornet and the EA-18 Growler. It is also home to Boeing Phantom Works.

Popular culture

See also

References

  1. ↑ FAA Airport Master Record for STL (Form 5010 PDF), retrieved 2007-07-24
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Historical Passenger Statistics by Type for the Years: 1985-2005". General Information about Lambert. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lambert-St. Louis history retrieved 2007-12-14.
  4. ↑ Mola, Roger. "Aircraft Landing Technology". U. S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.
  5. ↑ [1]
  6. ↑ [http://www.airchoiceone.com/>
  7. ↑ "Metro Home Page". Bi-State Development Agency. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.
  8. ↑ "The Expansion Story". Retrieved on 2007-07-25.
  9. ↑ "Historical Operation Statistics by Class for the Years: 1985-2006". Retrieved on 2007-07-25.
  10. ↑ "New $1 billion runway opens this week, but it's not needed anymore", USAToday.com (2006-04-11). Retrieved on 2007-07-25. 
  11. ↑ "Airport/Mass Transit November 2005 - Feature Story". Retrieved on 2007-07-25.
  12. ↑ "Airports and cities: Can they coexist?". Retrieved on 2007-07-25.
  13. ↑ "St. Louis' airports aren't too loud: They're too quiet", USAToday.com (2007-01-09). Retrieved on 2007-07-25. 

External links