page_title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport
section_title: 2009–2017: Southwest expansion; rebirth of the airport
hierarchical_section_title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport / History / 2009–2017: Southwest expansion; rebirth of the airport
caption_attribution_description: English: Windows boarded up at STL after the 2011 tornado
context_page_description: St. Louis Lambert International Airport, formerly Lambert–St. Louis International Airport, is an international airport serving St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It is 14 miles northwest of downtown St. Louis in unincorporated St. Louis County between Berkeley and Bridgeton. Commonly referred to as Lambert Field or simply Lambert, it is the largest and busiest airport in Missouri with over 259 peak daily departures to 78 nonstop domestic and international locations. Lambert is the largest medium hub airport in the country. Lambert covers 2,800 acres of land.
  Named for Albert Bond Lambert, an Olympic medalist and prominent St. Louis aviator, the airport rose to international prominence in the 20th century thanks to its association with Charles Lindbergh, its groundbreaking air traffic control, its status as the primary hub of Trans World Airlines, and its iconic terminal. St. Louis Lambert International Airport is the primary airport in the St. Louis area, with MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, about 37 miles east, serving as a secondary metropolitan commercial airport. The two airports are connected by the Red Line of the city's light rail mass transit system, the MetroLink.
context_section_description: In early October 2009, Southwest Airlines announced the addition of six daily flights to several cities as an immediate response to the cutbacks announced by American Airlines. Then on October 21, 2009, Southwest announced that it would increase service with a "major expansion" in St. Louis by May 2010. The airline announced it would begin flying nonstop from St. Louis to 6 new cities for a new total of 31 destinations, increasing the number of daily departures from 74 to 83. This had the effect of replacing American as the carrier with the most daily flights after American's service cuts in summer 2010.
  The airport hit its nadir in 2010 following the closure of the American hub in the midst of the Great Recession, ending the year with the lowest passenger and aircraft movement statistics of any modern year on record. Fortunately for the airport, Southwest's announced expansion at Lambert immediately began to fill in for many of the holes left by the demise of the hub. What followed were several years of steady growth by Southwest that maintained passenger numbers at a fairly steady level, allowing airport leadership time to shift priorities and begin the long road to recovery in earnest.
  Complicating recovery was the 'Good Friday tornado'. At about 8:10 p.m. on April 22, 2011, an EF4 tornado struck the airport's Terminal 1, destroying jetways and breaking more than half of the windows. One Southwest Airlines aircraft was damaged when the wind pushed a baggage conveyor belt into it. Four American Airlines aircraft were damaged, including one that was buffeted by 80 mph crosswinds while taxiing after landing. Another aircraft, with passengers still on board, was moved away from its jetway by the storm. The FAA closed the airport at 08:54 pm CDT, then reopened it the following day at temporarily lower capacity. The damage to Concourse C even forced several airlines to use vacant gates in the B and D concourses. The TSA would later declare Lambert Airport its "Airport of the Year" for "exceptional courtesy [and] high-quality security" as well as the "excellent response by airport officials during and after the tornado". In the meantime, the tornado and subsequent damage to the terminal facilities accelerated the timeline for the "Airport Experience Program", a large-scale renovation of the interior spaces of Terminal 1 and its concourses. Concourse C underwent renovations and repairs and finally reopened on April 2, 2012.
  One of the first true indications of the airport's recovery was in May 2013, when several credit agencies improved their evaluations of the airport's finances. Moody's raised its rating on Lambert Airport's bonds to A3 with a stable outlook from Baa1 with a stable outlook. Standard & Poor's (S&P) raised its rating to A- with a stable outlook from A- with a negative outlook. This was the first time in more than a decade that both Moody's and Standard & Poor's ratings for the Airport had both been in the single "A" category. Earlier in the month, Fitch Ratings upgraded outstanding airport revenue bonds to 'BBB+' from 'BBB' with a stable outlook. The rating agencies attributed the upgrades to strong fiscal management and positive passenger traffic.
  In 2015, the airport released a new Five Year Strategic Plan. The overall mission statement of the airport was given as "connecting [the St. Louis] region with the world", while also detailed were four major strategic objectives: Strengthening Financial Sustainability; Sustaining and Growing Passenger Air Service; Creating a Positive and Lasting Impression for the Region; and Generating Economic Development. The plan went into detail regarding each objective, listing overall measures of success and potential methods to attain successful outcomes. Some of the given measures of success are reducing costs per enplaned passenger, reducing the airport's debt service, maximizing sources of revenue (primarily non-aviation), increasing passenger throughput, gaining new passenger services, improving satisfaction survey scores, and increasing revenue from cargo.
  In January 2
caption: Terminal 1 windows boarded up after the 2011 tornado
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