09.23.2009 5:26 pm
Lambert, looking forward
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
American Airlines Dehubbing of Lambert International Airport only confirms some harsh economic realities of this area and the airline industry. The reality is that the St. Louis region doesn’t have the population or GDP comparable to Chicago, New York, LA nor the tourist influx of Disney World or Sin City to support the number of flights that a TWA hub supported. Second, the Legacy airline industry overbuilt its domestic capacity and since has cut back to regional jets and consolidation as a result. Memphis might look our way to see what happens when a stronger competitor such as Delta buys out a weaker competitor such as NWA at a particular time in history. Delta like AA will soon be looking for cuts in their own overbuilt domestic hub network.
Hopefully our setback to the region will not hinder but act as a catalyst to much needed reforms and continued changes for Lambert. First, Slay and City Aldermen must recognize that the region and thus their own city will be stronger if airport ownership and authority is shared with the County. This will provide the much needed political clout in Jefferson as well as Washington. More importantly, this will be a strong signal to the business community that we are willing to tackle economic development as a whole. Second, downsize, downsize, and downsize again. We simply don’t need all the gates present nor will their be a need in the foresseable future. At a minimum, bulldoze under utilized Concourse D and what passes as an international arrival area, the area between Concourse D and East Terminal. Strengthen East Terminal and therefore Southwest Airlines by making changes consistent with the terminal in order to handle international flights. Downsizing should go one step farther, leaders should demand from the State, Department of Defense and AA that underutilized facilities as the old Air National Guard hangers or the aircraft maintenance at the end of the new runway be utilized or be bulldozed at their expense. Finally, Gov. Nixon and Pete Rahn can assist in releasing and securing any state funds to support a China air cago facility as well as any associated taxiway improvements. It is imperative for the State to help make an Air Cargo hub happen and our best opportunity at economic expansion through the use of Lambert.
Advocates still believe that a new aiport on the outskirts would have saved TWA and St. Louis as a hub. I believe that would have given the region two vastly underutilized facilities at twice or three times the cost of the new runway. Instead, our additional capacity, central location with great freeway and transit access, expanded economic free trade zone and being along a route that is the shortest distance from China to South America bodes well for future development. Smart reforms to existing authority and wise choices in downsizing the number of gates will only help Lambert’s recent success in bringing in flights from other carriers as well as continue to supports its number one user, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES.
Tim Ekren
Shrewsbury
Haviing spent more than 33 years in the airline industry, Ozark, TWA and AAL, you have very eloquently stated what needed to be said many years ago concerning the St. Louis Airport Authority thought processes.
Fred
You present a very studied analysis, Tim. You are absolutely right. I was an airline Captain flying in and out of St. Louis for over 20 years. The pilots always jokingly called Lambert “Calcutta with a rug”, because of its run-down, unattractive terminal. The airport was and still is inadequate in almost every way. The pilots always advocated a regional approach to build a new airport away from the city with space for a new terminal, adequate parking and safe runways (similar to whathappened in Kansas City, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Denver.)
Obviously this never happened. The main reason is because the City of St. Louis vehemently opposed it. The city owns Lambert and the politicians have always used it for affirmative action.
Had the State of Missouri, or some regional authority built a new airport in the 1980’s, who’s to say that St. Louis International Airport would not be a bustling hub today? Instead, the politicians chose to spend money on expensive stadiums. Because it didn’t build a new airport, UPS established it’s hub in Louisville; Fed Ex went to Memphis, etc. etc. Had the City built a first class airport, perhaps so many corporations would not have moved their headquarters elsewhere. And perhaps St. Louis would still be a first class city.
Perhaps a change in the political mind set of those running St Louis and the airport could be a help. Remember the definition of insanity is electing the same people over and over again but expecting different results.
This is EXACTLY what I preach on a daily basis. The St. Louis metro area is nothing but a democrat machine who has NO clue about business. This is reminiscent of the Federal government. Government is a necessary evil that needs to be kept to a minimum. The more government involvement means more about payoffs and less about good business sense. We have payoffs to unions for construction projects and aren’t necessary. We have payoffs for political projects to return favors. There is such an amount of government waste and what do we get? The voters vote the same useless politicians over and over.
So ultimately, the voters are the reasons for failure but the politicians have set this disaster in motion. St. Louis will will probably never recover. So few people go back to the city except to watch a Sports event or possibly an event. However, that does not pay for all the city services that is needed to run a city, especially a city that houses needy voters who contribute so little. If you want to raise a family you have to move as soon as the kids hit school age since the St. Louis Public Schools are so useless. The Democrats have run the city for 60 years and the city has been losing population since then. That should tell you something right there. Now St. Louis county is starting the population drop and St. Charles is gaining.
Maybe the fathers of St. Charles County were correct after all when they didnt want Metrolink to connect them to St Louis City!
Superdave,
It seems that no matter what the issue your argument always devolves into a partisan attack on liberals/Democrats. You rail against the Federal Government now that Obama is president, but where was your outrage during the Bush years? For the record lets take your standard simpleton GOP hack argument in the other direction. George W. Bush was president for 8 years, during which time our nation went from prosperity to the verge of collapse. Bush allowed Wall Street criminals to steal trillions of dollars from our investment and retirement accounts. He concocted knowingly false pretenses in pushing hard for a needless war that has sapped our resources and destroyed our image in the eyes of the world. He rolled out the red carpet for the oil companies and allowed them to post record profits while the middle class of America posted record foreclosures. He employed Karl Rove, who single-handedly demolished the political landscape in America through his despicable re-election by any and I mean any means mentality. He shredded the Geneva Conventions by legalizing torture and then shredded the Constitution in passing the Patriot Act. So where was you outrage then? I guess because Bush is Republican you chose to ignore the reality of his errant policies. So what does any of this partisan rancor have to do with Lambert and the above letter? Absolutely nothing, which is my point exactly.
Stuperdave…In 2000, Lambert served over 30 million passengers. That’s why AA demanded a new runway. Stop blaming the unions. You keep repeating unions are insignificant…yet they can force airlines to build $1 billion dollar runways. If unions had that much power, they would force the big corporate CEOs to reduce the number of flight hours for pilots and stewardesses…
By 2004, the numbers plummeted to 12 million.
One of our favorite capitalists, Carl Ichan destroyed TWA after promising to make Lambert the International hub of the midwest. The sleazy businessman knew the parts were worth more than the whole. He sold everything except the option to buy discounted tickets which he then sold to overpriced travel agencies in exchange for huge profits.
AA came in thinking Lambert would be profitable for passenger lay-overs to their main hubs in Chicago and Dallas….
The Bush economy destroyed those dreams as well.
PS…your comments reek with racism. Tell Joe Wilson we said “hello”.
For those who believe that the problems with Lambert in particular and St. Louis city in general are not the result of bad politicians, most of whom have been Democrats, I just say open your eyes!! Look at Detroit. That’s where St. Louis is headed. St. Louis is well on it’s way to having a non-existant pool of qualified employees because the public school system is failing. Businesses will not relocate to the city and the existing ones will move away for this reason alone. Throw in the crime problem that Mayor Slay keeps trying to deny and St. Louis is definitely headed in the wrong direction. As for the airport, the terminal is dirty and ugly. The people who work there are not ready to assist you. In fact, some of them have seemed downright surly that they had to put forth some effort to answer a question. Parking is difficult and finding passenger drop off/pick up zones is a nightmare. The only bright spot at Lambert is the newly renovated McDonnell USO, which was done with private donations. Until people stop electing the same failed politicians things will never change.
What combination of FAA muscle and local money would it take to move American’s hub operations out of O’Hare and into Lambert?
Chicago O’Hare is no place to put a domestic hub. Yet O’Hare has two: United’s and American’s.
Neither UA nor AA will budge because that would mean “losing.” But those hubs can’t possibly be profitable. So leave one and move the other. Who’s ready to start?
dave c, why is it you people forget who was the majority in congress starting in 2007? They bring up the bills pal, not the President. Perhaps you should go back to civics class, eh?
Fools like you are a dime a dozen with you lefties. You really have so little knowledge that I usually wont waste my time paying attention to you. So Bush allowed the Wall Streeters to do this, eh? There is so much regulation on Wall Street and your regulators were asleep on the job. Gee, its a good thing we had all those regulations, dont you think? Let me guess, lets have MORE regulations….lol!
I really do appreciate your useless answers. By the way, I was not the only one talking about the politicians. Mist cities are run by Democrats and most of those cities are disasters. What about the high crime in St. Louis City, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, D.C., and I can go on. All of those cities are run by DEMOCRATS!
I cant help it you have your head up your posterior but frankly you need to get some friends to pull it out. Please show me where the cities are run by Republicans. When Guiliani took over for Jenkins the city got cleaned up. It was a mess. Thats one of the reasons he is so loved in New York. Need I go on?
Superdave,
Spark up and chill out my friend you are wound up way too tight. Not sure that Giuliani is a guy you really want to look up to:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/22/placa/
Maybe if he gets the nomination in ‘12 he will name Msgr. Placa as his running mate. Wouldn’t that just be the ticket?