gerstetm wrote:

chalupas54 wrote:

gerstetm wrote:

Emailing an employee at STL about BA flights at Pittsburgh and their view on it. Looks like it’s this whole privatization thing keeping us back. What are your thoughts? “There is one very unique difference between STL and PIT, AUS and BNA. I can’t say what that difference is but google lambert. You’ll see. I feel like we’re doing our best and deserve service from a major network air carrier but with one big issue hanging over us. Believe me, what I hear from those air carriers l can’t repeat”.

Firstly, half of the employees are gagged about privatization. They can't and won't talk about it. Also, the privatization discussions will have NO impact on air service. Absolutely none. The only time we would see an impact is post-privatization. If you're going to make things up, I would encourage you to actually do research.

What did I make up? I actually have done research. Also, I never confirmed anything, I just went off of my conversation with somebody in the Route Devlopment Team. Privatization is the only major difference from STL and those cities. Which is why I thought maybe something behind all that is keeping BA coming.

I can tell you for an absolute fact no one on the route development team would ever even remotely say, or allude, to anything you said. As I stated, higher-ups at STL are legally gagged about privatization. They cannot comment on it.

N983AN wrote:

Maybe once the STL region can learn how to maintain and safely operate their light rail system and address its race relations challenges it can graduate to the big leagues and may get the attention of BA. But how do they expect to profitably fill seats particularly in the forward cabin? Hate to break it to people in Missouri but STL is at best stagnant and not really relevant on the national, let alone international stage.

Not entirely sure what your point is about safety on the MetroLink has to do with the topic at hand?

Racial challenges in STL and the US will take decades to solve. Singling out STL for race issues is a cheap shot, given that STL is far from the worst offender. From my research, PIT is even more segregated than STL. Since you brought it up, however, I actually encourage you to look at the litany of studies/reports/initiatives that have been launched after Ferguson, that have done immense work in bringing equity to St Louis. It's very insightful to look at. Typically when situations like Ferguson arise, cities and metros try to brush it under the rug. St Louis I would argue is one of the few who have recognized the issue and have made it a priority to reconcile with the past and build a brighter future.

STL would not have an issue selling seats in the F cabin. For reference, since I assume you know very little about the St Louis of 2018, the region is the 20th largest in the US with 10 Fortune 500s. Although the economy of Greater St Louis has stagnated over the last few decades, recent reports indicate that STL is starting to pick up steam again. But even with that, STL's economy is incredibly diverse and has a booming startup and tech scene that is attracting global talent.

The comment on relevancy is just...stupid, lol. Is STL the most relevant city on earth? No. Is it irrelevant? No. I would, however, attest that St Louis is far more relevant than Pittsburgh.

N983AN makes a point. My company does an annual conference in STL. We bring a lot of people in from the SE and East Coast. We used to do it downtown, but people were concerned about the safety situation downtown and the Metro as an option for transit from the airport. We moved it near the airport, and had to deal with the Ferguson situation for a couple years.

I am not saying this is exclusive to STL, but I will say we have looked at moving it for these specific reasons.

On the plus side, the airport is well operated and SW going over 100 flights a day has made the air transportation side much more palatable.

gerstetm wrote:

chalupas54 wrote:

gerstetm wrote:

Emailing an employee at STL about BA flights at Pittsburgh and their view on it. Looks like it’s this whole privatization thing keeping us back. What are your thoughts? “There is one very unique difference between STL and PIT, AUS and BNA. I can’t say what that difference is but google lambert. You’ll see. I feel like we’re doing our best and deserve service from a major network air carrier but with one big issue hanging over us. Believe me, what I hear from those air carriers l can’t repeat”.

Firstly, half of the employees are gagged about privatization. They can't and won't talk about it. Also, the privatization discussions will have NO impact on air service. Absolutely none. The only time we would see an impact is post-privatization. If you're going to make things up, I would encourage you to actually do research.

What did I make up? I actually have done research. Also, I never confirmed anything, I just went off of my conversation with somebody in the Route Devlopment Team. Privatization is the only major difference from STL and those cities. Which is why I thought maybe something behind all that is keeping BA coming.

I can't see how privatization talk matters except possibly in a positive. If the airlines don't want it, they can veto it. So it shouldn't be keeping anyone back. For all we know BA is going to be announced next month. So until I see how the rest of the TATL announcements this year play out, I don't really think there is any reason to speculate why STL didn't get something.

Obviously subject to change this far out but DL has STL-CVG going double daily every day of the week starting June 2019. It has been double daily m-f no flights on Sat and 1 on Sunday. So, 3 more weekly flights.

chalupas54 wrote:

gerstetm wrote:

chalupas54 wrote:

Firstly, half of the employees are gagged about privatization. They can't and won't talk about it. Also, the privatization discussions will have NO impact on air service. Absolutely none. The only time we would see an impact is post-privatization. If you're going to make things up, I would encourage you to actually do research.

What did I make up? I actually have done research. Also, I never confirmed anything, I just went off of my conversation with somebody in the Route Devlopment Team. Privatization is the only major difference from STL and those cities. Which is why I thought maybe something behind all that is keeping BA coming.

I can tell you for an absolute fact no one on the route development team would ever even remotely say, or allude, to anything you said. As I stated, higher-ups at STL are legally gagged about privatization. They cannot comment on it.

I am just quoting what the employee said to me when I contacted them. The employee never said it was privatization, and never said what the problem was keeping us from getting a BA flight. In his statement that I already quoted he said “I can’t say what the difference is”. Never did he say anything about privatization. I was the only one saying ANYTHING about it might being privatization. That why I said it looks like. Privatization is the only main difference between STL and those other cities. I’m sorry that you feel that I have made this all up. Let’s just continue to hope BA is announced next month.

Yeah, uh, no. If you were speaking to someone off the record, let's not out them over an e-pissing match.

gerstetm wrote:

chalupas54 wrote:

gerstetm wrote:

What did I make up? I actually have done research. Also, I never confirmed anything, I just went off of my conversation with somebody in the Route Devlopment Team. Privatization is the only major difference from STL and those cities. Which is why I thought maybe something behind all that is keeping BA coming.

I can tell you for an absolute fact no one on the route development team would ever even remotely say, or allude, to anything you said. As I stated, higher-ups at STL are legally gagged about privatization. They cannot comment on it.

I am just quoting what the employee said to me when I contacted them. The employee never said it was privatization, and never said what the problem was keeping us from getting a BA flight. In his statement that I already quoted he said “I can’t say what the difference is”. Never did he say anything about privatization. I was the only one saying ANYTHING about it might being privatization. That why I said it looks like. Privatization is the only main difference between STL and those other cities. I’m sorry that you feel that I have made this all up. Let’s just continue to hope BA is announced next month.

I have said it twice already. STL higher ups will not discuss route development with the public over email. This is where your fabrication is so obvious. Even in the highly unlikely event you got through and someone risked their employment and NDA penalities to talk to you, they would never say that STL 'lacked' or whatever phrasing you have ultimately selected. The reason I am mostly upset over these posts is that they actually can cause problems. Rumors make it hard for STL to do their jobs. Even if this 'alleged' conversation happened, I'm sure the employee you spoke with would be delighted to know that you exposed them online.

I think it goes without saying, but people actually involved in the industry read these boards. If someone speaks to you off the record, don't post it. You could seriously cost someone their job.

midway7 wrote:

N983AN makes a point. My company does an annual conference in STL. We bring a lot of people in from the SE and East Coast. We used to do it downtown, but people were concerned about the safety situation downtown and the Metro as an option for transit from the airport. We moved it near the airport, and had to deal with the Ferguson situation for a couple years.

I am not saying this is exclusive to STL, but I will say we have looked at moving it for these specific reasons.

I've gotta say that it's really much more of a perception issue than it is an actual issue. Downtown, statistically, is actually fairly safe, and all-in-all, the crime stats for the entire metro aren't too far out of line with other similar U.S. metros. St. Louis gets a bad rap primarily due to inflated city crime statistics that are concentrated in a few areas - namely parts of North City - and the Metro East, and that are primarily gang-related. Combine that with local news stations and suburbanites that are all too eager to shit on the city for anything negative that occurs at all plus a small number of incidents that gained international notoriety and presto! Bad national image.

STL is one of the first 15 airports to get the new CT security checkpoint scanners.

https://www.cnet.com/news/tsas-new-scan ... d=54937170

I am a little curious what kind of impact the PGA Championship will have on traffic. I wouldn't expect up gauging in flights or anything but I would think there would be better loads. It won't be US Open level or anything but I would hope it would be pretty busy.

Can you guys help me out with something? A conference room at work has a perfect view of planes landing on 30R. Very distracting for an avgeek like me and I always have FlightAware open on my laptop seeing what's coming from where.

Anyways, sometime this afternoon around 2:45ish, in between a UA 737 diversion from IAH, and a UA 757 diversion from LAX (both diverts from ORD due to storms), another plane landed. Appeared to be a 737 or A320 - I can't really tell them apart from this distance. It was white with some blue markings on it, no airline name that I could tell was on it, and it wasn't on FlightAware. Anyone know what it might have been?

STLflyer wrote:

Can you guys help me out with something? A conference room at work has a perfect view of planes landing on 30R. Very distracting for an avgeek like me and I always have FlightAware open on my laptop seeing what's coming from where.

Anyways, sometime this afternoon around 2:45ish, in between a UA 737 diversion from IAH, and a UA 757 diversion from LAX (both diverts from ORD due to storms), another plane landed. Appeared to be a 737 or A320 - I can't really tell them apart from this distance. It was white with some blue markings on it, no airline name that I could tell was on it, and it wasn't on FlightAware. Anyone know what it might have been?

It's swift air. I've seen parked a fair amount this week at its gate.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWQ ... /MKJS/KSTL

No, it definitely wasn't Swiftair because I was no longer in the conference room at 3:12 when FA says that one landed. I checked FlightAware when I saw it and there was nothing on the arrivals that would've identtified it.

STLflyer wrote:

No, it definitely wasn't Swiftair because I was no longer in the conference room at 3:12 when FA says that one landed. I checked FlightAware when I saw it and there was nothing on the arrivals that would've identtified it.

No clue then. I drove by when when the DL 757 was landing and noticed the UA 757 but I must have just missed it.

So there is a passenger Qatar Airways A340 on the ground at STL. I can't find any record of it on flight aware. Anyone know why it is here? The airport twitter tweeted out pics of it.

EDIT: Apparently it came from Washington DC. Makes me think it might have been political since there isn't a tracker for it.

Updated my September frequency spreadsheet for all airlines.

Not much to note except that BLV will be lower than last year from G4. Not running JAX or FLL this winter. It will be way up for the year but is going to be down a bit on the back end. Not sure if that is related to getting rid of MD80s or not.

All below is different from August so could just be seasonal changes. I didn't do a September spreadsheet last year so I can't compare.
MSP also goes all mainline on DL.
DTW goes all RJ.

DL added a LGA and AA dropped one (although it is dropping 2 ERJ140s and adding a E175 so seat count won't be all that different.)

WN is down 1 flight to Midway from August.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Jshank83 wrote:

So there is a passenger Qatar Airways A340 on the ground at STL. I can't find any record of it on flight aware. Anyone know why it is here? The airport twitter tweeted out pics of it.

EDIT: Apparently it came from Washington DC. Makes me think it might have been political since there isn't a tracker for it.

Supposedly the Prime Minister of Qatar was in town. At least that's what I was told.

It’s registered to Qatar’s VIP division: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_Amiri_Flight

Could it be related to the PGA championship?

It’s an Amiri flight which is Qatari royalty and VIPs. I would venture to guess that visiting STL, it’s probably related to healthcare or Boeing.

Unrelated, but Qatar Airways has a destination website for STL, which I find interesting. It seems to be fairly well written too.

https://www.qatarairways.com/en/destina ... louis.html

777PHX wrote:

It’s an Amiri flight which is Qatari royalty and VIPs. I would venture to guess that visiting STL, it’s probably related to healthcare or Boeing.

Unrelated, but Qatar Airways has a destination website for STL, which I find interesting. It seems to be fairly well written too.

https://www.qatarairways.com/en/destina ... louis.html

Maybe Qatar Airways is who the rumored August announcement will be about!

I would guess it is Boeing. They signed a deal for fighter jets within the last year. Might just be coming over to visit the plant.

Jshank83 wrote:

All below is different from August so could just be seasonal changes. I didn't do a September spreadsheet last year so I can't compare.
MSP also goes all mainline on DL.
DTW goes all RJ.

I find this very interesting that DL would be routing STL pax to MSP over DTW. From a geographic standpoint, it would seem that DTW is better positioned to serve STL for all points northeast, and to Europe. In fact, it is almost perfectly situated for those flights should you have to make a connection (granted nonstop would obviously be better).

DTW also has better TPAC options sans the HND flight. Now, obviously MSP is better positioned to serve the northern plains and western Canada, but how many pax from STL are actually flying there? A for the west coast, SLC is better positioned for those connections.

Don't get me wrong, MSP is a great airport and nice to connect in. But from STL, it would seem that DL would be routing pax mostly to ATL, SLC, and DTW... and less so to MSP just because of geography. Which is why I ask the question of why the RJs are going to DTW and mainline to MSP, and not the other way around.

kavok wrote:

Jshank83 wrote:

All below is different from August so could just be seasonal changes. I didn't do a September spreadsheet last year so I can't compare.
MSP also goes all mainline on DL.
DTW goes all RJ.

I find this very interesting that DL would be routing STL pax to MSP over DTW. From a geographic standpoint, it would seem that DTW is better positioned to serve STL for all points northeast, and to Europe. In fact, it is almost perfectly situated for those flights should you have to make a connection (granted nonstop would obviously be better).

DTW also has better TPAC options sans the HND flight. Now, obviously MSP is better positioned to serve the northern plains and western Canada, but how many pax from STL are actually flying there? A for the west coast, SLC is better positioned for those connections.

Don't get me wrong, MSP is a great airport and nice to connect in. But from STL, it would seem that DL would be routing pax mostly to ATL, SLC, and DTW... and less so to MSP just because of geography. Which is why I ask the question of why the RJs are going to DTW and mainline to MSP, and not the other way around.

The only thing I can think of is that they can spread out the connections going east (DTW,LGA,CVG,ATL). Going west it is only MSP and SLC. I am flying DL to Boston this weekend and I got thrown a bunch of LGA options as the layover. I like DTW better personally though and I try to use it when it makes sense.

Spirit is expecting an extra 1000 flights due to the PGA Championship next week.

https://kmox.radio.com/articles/spirit- ... ga-flights

Jshank83 wrote:

Spirit is expecting an extra 1000 flights due to the PGA Championship next week.

https://kmox.radio.com/articles/spirit- ... ga-flights

I had a hunch they would have a "slight" increase in traffic.

Jshank83 wrote:

kavok wrote:

I find this very interesting that DL would be routing STL pax to MSP over DTW. From a geographic standpoint, it would seem that DTW is better positioned to serve STL for all points northeast, and to Europe. In fact, it is almost perfectly situated for those flights should you have to make a connection (granted nonstop would obviously be better).

DTW also has better TPAC options sans the HND flight. Now, obviously MSP is better positioned to serve the northern plains and western Canada, but how many pax from STL are actually flying there? A for the west coast, SLC is better positioned for those connections.

Don't get me wrong, MSP is a great airport and nice to connect in. But from STL, it would seem that DL would be routing pax mostly to ATL, SLC, and DTW... and less so to MSP just because of geography. Which is why I ask the question of why the RJs are going to DTW and mainline to MSP, and not the other way around.

The only thing I can think of is that they can spread out the connections going east (DTW,LGA,CVG,ATL). Going west it is only MSP and SLC. I am flying DL to Boston this weekend and I got thrown a bunch of LGA options as the layover. I like DTW better personally though and I try to use it when it makes sense.

While DL doesn't currently serve SEA, LAX, BOS, JFK, or RDU nonstop from STL, DL has hubs at SEA, LAX, and JFK and focus cities at BOS and RDU. DL also already has nonstop service to Midwestern destinations other than MSP, DTW, and CVG out of SEA, LAX, BOS, JFK, and RDU.

DL could add nonstop service to at least SEA, LAX, BOS, and RDU out of STL. Is DL likely to add STL-SEA, STL-LAX, STL-BOS, or STL-RDU nonstop service anytime soon?

Could there be an Aer Lingus announcement forth coming?

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/tra ... -1.3585382

Aer Lingus chief executive Stephen Kavanagh confirmed on Friday that the airline planned to cut a shortlist of three possible North American destinations to a final two in coming weeks.
"He did not name any of the candidates, but sources suggest that Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Montreal in Canada could feature on the list, along with a possible destination in the midwest.
“We hope to make an announcement in the next two to three weeks as to the location of those two new destinations,” Mr Kavanagh said.
Mr Kavanagh said that Aer Lingus was likely to begin flying to both from July 2019 and seats would go on sale following the announcement.
Next year Aer Lingus will begin adding 12 new Airbus A321 long range craft to its fleet.

Unless I was drinking, I am pretty sure I think I made a comment of "while I don't see British Airways here, I could see Aer Lingus."
I've slept since then.

Ho hum

stlgph wrote:

Unless I was drinking, I am pretty sure I think I made a comment of "while I don't see British Airways here, I could see Aer Lingus."
I've slept since then.

Ho hum

Lol... well I would think that (on the small chance) if EI chooses STL then I don’t think you’ll be seeing BA alongside them... unless.. in that scenario EI would do really and IAG would switch it to a BA route. I can’t imgajne a scenario where both BA and EI are in STL at the same time. Of course I am certainly no expert lol

Midwestindy wrote:

Could there be an Aer Lingus announcement forth coming?

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/tra ... -1.3585382

Aer Lingus chief executive Stephen Kavanagh confirmed on Friday that the airline planned to cut a shortlist of three possible North American destinations to a final two in coming weeks.
"He did not name any of the candidates, but sources suggest that Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Montreal in Canada could feature on the list, along with a possible destination in the midwest.
“We hope to make an announcement in the next two to three weeks as to the location of those two new destinations,” Mr Kavanagh said.
Mr Kavanagh said that Aer Lingus was likely to begin flying to both from July 2019 and seats would go on sale following the announcement.
Next year Aer Lingus will begin adding 12 new Airbus A321 long range craft to its fleet.

PIT could get another European!? They are going to have more Europe cities than Pacific time zone cities at this pace.

A bunch of Volaris flights are available on their website to STL connecting via CUN on F9 for fair prices. Pretty cool!


Now we have Apple chartering the plane, Funjet selling tickets on the chartered section, and Frontier + Volaris selling tickets and connections on the remaining portion, not something you see everyday

https://flights.volaris.com/en-us/flights-to-st-louis

Nice writeup, I like how they prioritized STL before they did MSY and BNA or even CLT, who is getting service on them. CVG and CLE have one too.

stl07 wrote:

https://flights.volaris.com/en-us/flights-to-st-louis

Nice writeup, I like how they prioritized STL before they did MSY and BNA or even CLT, who is getting service on them. CVG and CLE have one too.

Probably helps that we have a Cancun flight on F9 so that gives us more connection destinations than others.

I wonder if Elite Airways will ever announce service to STL <grins>

https://flightaware.com/live/findflight ... ation=KSUS

Fair amount of flights from Akron to SUS flights today of people coming from this weekends tourney to next weekend.

[threeid][/threeid]

usxguy wrote:

I wonder if Elite Airways will ever announce service to STL <grins>

I just woke up and might have a little grey hair, but I don’t get it.

Stuff the airport is doing for the PGA champ. I fly out of C for the first time in forever this week, so I am excited to check some of it out.

http://www.kmov.com/story/38815200/lamb ... p-visitors

Jshank83 wrote:

Stuff the airport is doing for the PGA champ. I fly out of C for the first time in forever this week, so I am excited to check some of it out.

http://www.kmov.com/story/38815200/lamb ... p-visitors

Holy crap, people volunteer to work the tournament? Seems like the PGA should be able to fairly pay people working the event.

STLflyer wrote:

Jshank83 wrote:

Stuff the airport is doing for the PGA champ. I fly out of C for the first time in forever this week, so I am excited to check some of it out.

http://www.kmov.com/story/38815200/lamb ... p-visitors

Holy crap, people volunteer to work the tournament? Seems like the PGA should be able to fairly pay people working the event.

I think they only work one day and then get free tickets to all the other days.

Probably just doing simple stuff. Most big events have at least some volunteers. (Working as ushers, selling concessions, that sort of thing.) Sometimes it's a way to raise money for charity. My dad helped sell concessions at a Rams game to raise money for something. We used to have the Lions as ushers at the Hearnes center in Columbia MO for basketball games and concerts all the time. (Not sure if they were raising money, but I would guess that they were.) There are always volunteers at music festivals. (Good way to get a ticket.) It's just standard. It's a good way for fans to get access, really.

Just saw the first BDL-STL flight land. Didn't realize it was starting out on a -800. Guessing a lot of west coast connects since it feeds into that bank.

STLflyer wrote:

Jshank83 wrote:

Stuff the airport is doing for the PGA champ. I fly out of C for the first time in forever this week, so I am excited to check some of it out.

http://www.kmov.com/story/38815200/lamb ... p-visitors

Holy crap, people volunteer to work the tournament? Seems like the PGA should be able to fairly pay people working the event.

Yep! I am one of them. Perks are totally worth it. Work 4, 4 hour shifts get pass for all 7 days. You have to pay $175 for uniform.
http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/news/volunteer-registration-now-open-100th-pga-championship

So does anyone have any news on the new Europe destination/airline launch from STL that was rumoured to possibly be announced this week?

TheLion wrote:

So does anyone have any news on the new Europe destination/airline launch from STL that was rumoured to possibly be announced this week?

Are u sure it was this week? If you are, then the only news is that it is not aer lingus.

I never heard anything about it coming this week. I would be a little surprised if it is. PGA is taking all the news cycle and the airport is even using ther stage all week for performances. So I kind of doubt the this week (although I would be happy to be wrong)

In other news Sun Country will be using Concource C (as most expected)

stl07 wrote:

TheLion wrote:

So does anyone have any news on the new Europe destination/airline launch from STL that was rumoured to possibly be announced this week?

Are u sure it was this week? If you are, then the only news is that it is not aer lingus.

So I am doing the math on this. If and I mean BIG IF, EI decides to do DUB-STL, the 321 NEO will be right at the edge of performance. STL-DUB is 3,921 miles. Airbus says the 321 NEO range is 4,000. I can't see them using an A330 on this route. Their 757s don't have the legs for this (that I can calculate) either. Call me a pessimist, and I will eat crow if I am wrong. It just doesn't seem 'right'.

TWA302 wrote:

stl07 wrote:

TheLion wrote:

So does anyone have any news on the new Europe destination/airline launch from STL that was rumoured to possibly be announced this week?

Are u sure it was this week? If you are, then the only news is that it is not aer lingus.

So I am doing the math on this. If and I mean BIG IF, EI decides to do DUB-STL, the 321 NEO will be right at the edge of performance. STL-DUB is 3,921 miles. Airbus says the 321 NEO range is 4,000. I can't see them using an A330 on this route. Their 757s don't have the legs for this (that I can calculate) either. Call me a pessimist, and I will eat crow if I am wrong. It just doesn't seem 'right'.

I think they are planning on using the A321LR on the new routes. It has 4000 nm range and STL I think is 3400ish nm.

I still am not sure I see them running it but I don't think equipment will be an issue.

It would be a shame if Aer Lingus can't get here because of performance. A 321/757 type of plane would be great for St. Louis.