Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
As I sit down to write this, my wife is stuck on a layover on her way back to Lambert–St. Louis International Airport. Like much of St. Louis, we have a complicated relationship with the place. We rely on it for business and leisure. We appreciate its manageable size—less sprawling than Dallas or Chicago, but with more amenities than Kansas City or Milwaukee. But we know it has its imperfections.
Part of the problem, I suspect, is that we had it so good for so long. During the early years, the likes of the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh took flight from St. Louis. In the mid-1900s, architect Minoru Yamasaki’s four-domed terminal became the envy of far-larger cities. And in the late 20th century, Trans World Airlines transformed Lambert into one of the nation’s busiest airports, with direct flights to major European cities. We were a midsize city with a world-class airport, a quality St. Louisans boasted about to friends on the coast.
Then, in 2001, everything changed. The 9/11 attacks devastated the airline industry. Earlier that year, American Airlines had bought TWA. Eventually, the airline cut hundreds of daily flights and destinations, shifting business to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. In 2009, the Brookings Institution reported that the number of inbound passengers at Lambert had dropped by 54 percent in the previous decade—the largest loss of any metropolitan airport in the nation.
Still, Lambert is working to bounce back. Southwest Airlines has picked up much of the slack American left behind, and smaller carriers have begun to offer flights. The airport had more emplanements last year than most Midwestern cities. And there have been noticeable upgrades: better signage, public art, local restaurants—and that copper roof on Terminal 1.
Yet there’s room for improvement. “A hub city has different travelers and behaviors than if you’re just an end point,” Square co-founder Jim McKelvey recently told the St. Louis Business Journal, after lamenting Lambert’s lack of direct flights to Berlin. “Right now, St. Louis is an end point.”
Realistically, we might not be able to compete with O’Hare in Chicago, but there’s still reason to believe we could regain a little of our old cosmopolitan advantage. After all, Minneapolis is a city with a population close to ours, and its airport offers direct flights to Paris, London, and Amsterdam.
But more on that later. Right now, I have to pick up my wife at the airport.
