ST. LOUIS — For the first time in nearly 20 years, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ans will be able to fly nonstop to continental Europe, a longtime goal of business and civic leaders.
Sources say a press conference scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at regional and business civic group Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Inc.’s downtown headquarters is expected to announce nonstop flights from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Lambert International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany on Lufthansa Airlines.
Passengers walk through a hallway in Terminal 2 at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Lambert International Airport on Thursday, May 17, 2018. Photo by Nikos Frazier, nfrazier@post-dispatch.com
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County Executive Sam Page, Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ CEO Jason Hall and Enterprise Holdings Executive Chairman Andy Taylor — also the founding chairman of Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ — are to be in attendance.
The area’s business community and the airport have been pursuing an international flight to Europe from Lambert for years. The last nonstop European connection ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ had was to London, flights Lambert lost in 2003 when American Airlines absorbed the bankrupt Trans World Airlines and ended the airport’s role as a hub.
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The region had a short-lived nonstop connection to Iceland via budget carrier Wow Air in 2018, but the flights, which were geared toward vacationers, lasted just over half a year before the airline went bankrupt. Three other international connections are in Latin America and marketed mostly to tourists: Cancun, Mexico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Some business leaders have long cited the lack of a direct connection to Europe as an impediment to economic development efforts. ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ officials have in the past pursued a British Airways connection to London, but in recent years have mentioned a Lufthansa connection to Frankfurt as another logical target.
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ has some major German business ties. The former Sigma-Aldrich chemical company is now part of Merck’s MilliporeSigma life sciences arm. Merck KGaA is based in Darmstadt, Germany, in the Frankfurt area. Monsanto’s former operations are now the Seeds and Traits unit of Bayer, which has its headquarters near Cologne, Germany, about two hours north of Frankfurt. German seed company KWS also has a research presence here.
For the last several years, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County Port Authority has set aside over $1 million of its reserves as an incentive to try and lure an international flight to Lambert.
Past efforts by the airport and city have come up short, with fast-growing cities such as Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, snagging direct flights to London that ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ also sought.
Pre-pandemic, airport officials have said about 300 people a day were flying to Europe from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, with the largest proportion going to London. Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said just before COVID-19 devastated travel that her “No. 1 complaint†was “the lack of international service.â€
Passenger counts at Lambert have begun climbing back from their pandemic lows, though they’re still well below where they were before the virus hit. Through October, the most recent numbers available, there were about 8.4 million total passengers, up 55% compared with 2020. But that number was still well below the 13.3 million total passengers at Lambert through October 2019.
The international flight represents a big win for both the airport and Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Inc., the new business group formed last year by the merger of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Regional Chamber, Civic Progress and Downtown STL Inc.
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, which owns Lambert, spent several years eyeing privatization of one of the city’s largest assets, an effort backed by many consultants with influence in City Hall but quietly opposed by Lambert administration.
Hall, before the formation of Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, was a vocal opponent of privatization of Lambert, and Taylor was reportedly skeptical of the effort.
Former Mayor Lyda Krewson ended the privatization effort in late 2019.
Updated at 6:30 p.m.
