Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2024

I kind of thought this was interesting over in the DTW thread: https://simpleflying.com/delta-london-heathrow-flight-cuts-summer-2024/ Article says: It filled 626 out of the 744 available seats on a typical day. Booking data for these three summer months suggest that, on average, about 372 passenger...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2024

The reality is if there was / is sufficient demand they would have / will increase the flights. My guess is this is primairly a flight performance issue. Every STL supporter needs to keep in mind that loads were, what, high 80's, with 20 some passengers connecting on junk yields per flight? Hopefull...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2024

The idea of Brazil is crazy - just not happening. Nobody to fly it.

Getting 5x weekly to FRA would be a nice start. My guess is its too late for this summer.

They cite "challenges" as to the reason why it hasn't expanded already. Wonder what those are....beyond flight performance?

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2024

My instinct tells me they end up leaving save for an increase of subsidies to the $7.5-$10M range (similar to CVG) to bump the flight to five times per week. The way they've handled it - saying one thing, doing another - certainly leads me to believe they are giving themselves an easy way out (not ...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2024

I say LH goes 5x or leaves (or at least announces a change for 2025). The subsidy money is going to run out and 3x will no longer be viable when that happens My instinct tells me they end up leaving save for an increase of subsidies to the $7.5-$10M range (similar to CVG) to bump the flight to five...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

I am to the point where actions speak louder than words but for this interested. St. Louis, Kansas City working to land state money for international flights State legislators and Gov. Mike Parson this year set aside $5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to help sweeten the deal for airlines ...

Re: AC adding STL-YUL

Bottom line is the market lacks the growth and young tech-oriented population that can actually travel to Europe on a whim. Also despite being an older market it’s not necessarily wealthy. On the plus side the corporate community does punch above its weight. I hear that, but isn’t Austin the epitom...

Re: AC adding STL-YUL

I mean STL could theoretically support another TATL, but I cannot see how a Star Alliance carrier that isn’t LHG would do it. SK, LO, and TK probably wouldn’t happen. BA would be able to make STL work, at least seasonally and/or less than daily to start. STL is still a massive AAdvantage market (th...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

Great get for the airport and a bit of a surprise considering AC didn't even fly to YYZ as recently as last year.

Re: Large San Antonio (SAT) Air Service Announcement 9/21

Good for SAT. In the scheme of things the $5-$10 million annually for these routes are wise investments of economic development money. Also seems like with more communities doing this that it will be increasingly common practice.

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

June international loads Southwest Cancun 96% Southwest Punta Cana 93% Lufthansa Frankfurt 92% (97.68% outbound) - up 72 passengers or 1.1% more full over last year with the same amount of seats/flights. Southwest Montego Bay 90% Frontier Punta Cana 89.5% Frontier Cancun 89.5% Air Canada Toronto 86...

Re: Nashville Aviation - 2023

I’m shocked that LH opted for RDU over BNA (if that was the alternative). Yes, yes - I know each market’s demographics and socioeconomic makeup so please don’t send it to me I’ll spare you the time. I can’t understand the logic behind a third of the pie in RDU over half the pie in BNA (or even the e...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

strangeplanes wrote:

Never tell your customers or potential customers something is wrong until the last moment. It’s hard to sell a product people think might not exist in a few months.

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

Bingo ^^^^^. It isn't going to last in its current form. If you were to lose the German flag carrier after a brief subsidy period it would be yet another major civic setback and on some level that is what I'm afraid of. I would hope that we'll get clarity from the airport / RHN on why it didn't hap...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

Seeing AUS and SAN get expanded and not STL is something of concern, however I do not see it that way. From the article, 11 universities and businesses, including UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, Elon, BASF and Wolfspeed, agreed to offer financial support. That is a HUGE thing for RDU. We don't know the term...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

Seeing AUS and SAN get expanded and not STL is something of concern, however I do not see it that way. From the article, 11 universities and businesses, including UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, Elon, BASF and Wolfspeed, agreed to offer financial support. That is a HUGE thing for RDU. We don't know the term...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

Here is the link. Pretty disappointing. Not to be dramatic here but can't see how this lasts after the subsidy period if 3x per week is all it can sustain.... hope I'm wrong. https://www.businesstravelnews.com/Global/Lufthansa-to-Add-North-American-Routes-Frequencies-in-2024#:~:text=Lufthansa%20in%2...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

Was just reading that LH will increase frequency on FRA-AUS, MCO, DFW and move SAN-MUC to daily. If there isn't a flight frequency increase after the RDU / MSP adds (which are five times per week) you can't feel good about the flight's long-term prospects regardless of what's been said or speculated...

Re: SAT Courting London/FRA Service

One solution could be for BA to hand over AUS-LHR to American. That'd make sense - the BA Austin flights depart from Terminal 3 anyway Why would AA waste a widebody DFW-AUS flight to position it for the flight to LHR? BA can just fly an A350 from it's LHR hub to AUS, then fly it back to LHR When we...

Re: SAT Courting London/FRA Service

I don't get your focus on SAT-YYZ. San Antonio is far more connected to Mexico than Canada both culturally and business wise. What would a flight to YYZ prove? SAT has had international service for decades to Mexico. Current service consists of three Mexican Airlines serving four destinations along...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

Great to see the flight be such a success. I can’t imagine that it isn’t beating expectations. Hopefully next year we see it go to 5x / week. Certainly seems like its warranted.

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

Saw that Tim Nowak from the WTC is headed to London and will apparently meet with an airline. Anyone have any more information? There’s an obvious candidate there (BA) but I’m sure I’m not the only one who is skeptical they can stand up two international routes at the same time after not having one...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

I think LH increasing to 5x weekly would fill the need for now, before looking at a change in aircraft. The CUN numbers at STL give decent support to BLV being able to support a flight as well. Wasn't there a hint recently of another service announcement coming? Maybe I misread that. I haven't hear...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

The end of C concourse is definitely a curiosity to many around here for a variety of reasons. Someone around here posted a shot of the old Ambassadors Lounge a while back and maybe could do it again. Here is a link to a video of the area during the 727 retirement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd...

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

I wouldn’t count out the 4th or 5th frequency yet. RHN was on kmox saying she expected it this spring. Loads in Nov/Dec were still 85%+. Also business class demand has been much better than anticipated.

So, you never know, but all is positive for the flight’s long-term health.

Re: St. Louis Aviation - 2023

This is probably 100% grade A BS, and I’d take it with an entire mine full of salt, but someone on Reddit claims we’re getting another legacy European carrier: https://www.reddit.com/r/StLouis/comments/101goyz/why_dont_we_have_a_direct_flight_to_jfk/j2plzm7/ Anyone hear any rumors from more reputab...

Re: St. Louis Aviation Thread - 2022