St. Louis Flights Resume as Airport Opens After Tornado
April 24, 2011, 3:35 PM EDTBy Dan Hart
(Updates number of departures in the second paragraph.)
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- AirTran Holdings Inc.’s AirTran Airways has resumed most service and Southwest Airlines Co. plans full operations today at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport after a tornado forced the airport to close.
At least 14 flights had taken off from St. Louis as of 2 p.m. local time, according to the airport’s web site. Lambert opened to arrivals last night. AirTran’s first arrival today, Flight 795 from Atlanta, landed at 9:33 a.m.
“We were able to relocate to Concourse B from Concourse C overnight,” said AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver in a telephone interview. The Orlando, Florida-based carrier operates 11 flights to and from St. Louis daily, she said.
Southwest plans to operate its complete schedule after bringing in some aircraft, said spokeswoman Marilee McInnis. AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, Southwest and AirTran had canceled flights after the facility was damaged.
American suspended its flights, 60 arrivals and departures, today into and out of St. Louis, said Ed Martelle, a spokesman for American. The carrier plans to bring in planes tonight and expects to operate a full schedule tomorrow, he said.
Southwest, the biggest low-fare carrier and largest tenant at Lambert, operates 85 flights daily from St. Louis, McInnis said. Four flights arrived last night, McInnis said. At least seven Southwest flights had departed as of 10 a.m. New York time, according to the airport’s website.
Full Capacity by Midweek
Terminal 2 and the airport’s airfield are “fully functional,” said Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, the airport director. Most damage was done at Terminal 1, Concourse C, where American and AirTran run their operations, she said.
The airport may be operating at full capacity by midweek, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said during a televised press conference yesterday carried on CNN.
The storm hit on the evening of April 22. It broke most of the glass windows and doors and tore off sections of the roof at Concourse C of Terminal 1, according to Jeff Lea, a spokesman for the airport. Light poles, signs, trees and fences were damaged and “some vehicles were turned over,” Lea said in an interview.
It was the strongest tornado to strike the area in 44 years, according to the National Weather Service.
Minor Damage to Planes
No one in St. Louis was killed during the storm, Charlie Dooley, county executive for St. Louis County, said at the conference. Five people suffered minor injuries.
Four American aircraft, two Boeing 757s and two MD-80s, were damaged during the storm, Martelle said. Two of the aircraft experienced minor damage, while the other two will require more extensive repairs, such as replacing a radome and a rudder, he said.
A Southwest plane on the ground was damaged when a belt loader hit the aircraft. Southwest’s McInnis said the airline is going to look at making the necessary repairs to the aircraft before ferrying it to one of the carrier’s maintenance depots.
Lambert isn’t a hub for any of the major U.S. carriers, which tempers the blow to the nation’s air-traffic system.
As many as 12.3 million passengers passed through Lambert last year, said Lea. About 256 departures daily and almost the same number of arrivals move through the airport, served by 13 carriers flying to 61 destinations, according to the airport’s website.
The top destination for flights from Lambert are Chicago, a hub for American and United Continental Holdings Inc.; Atlanta, the home base for Delta; and Dallas-Fort Worth, where American has its headquarters, according to BTS data.
--With assistance from Natalie Doss in New York and Brian K. Sullivan in Boston. Editors: Sylvia Wier, Joe Sabo
To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sylvia Wier at swier@bloomberg.net
