St. Louis Airport Planners Foresee New Single Passenger Terminal

Jan. 8—ST. LOUIS — Construction of a single consolidated passenger terminal is the "preliminary preferred" alternative of planners studying St. Louis Lambert International Airport's future for the next 20 years.

The proposal, outlined in a briefing Wednesday to city airport commissioners by the WSP USA consulting firm, calls for a new linear concourse with 62 gates that would replace the 54 scattered across the two current terminals.

The new concourse would connect to the ticketing-area portion of the current Terminal 1 topped by its four iconic domes. That area, which has been a Lambert hallmark since 1956, would remain and expand to the west with new construction.

Terminal 2, which opened in 1998, would either be demolished or perhaps used for some other purpose such as a hotel, said Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge.

The plan also calls for a new larger garage to be built in place of the existing garage and a nearby lot outside Terminal 1. However, the plan so far doesn't address whether rental car companies should be housed together in a new facility at Lambert.

Hamm-Niebruegge said while the airport has done a great job in keeping its facilities competitive with those in other cities, changes need to be considered for the future.

"The challenge is just the aging infrastructure and the cost of meeting that," she said. "We think it's time to start talking about this."

Hamm-Niebruegge emphasized, however, that no decision has been made to go forward with the idea. She said many detailed discussions are still needed with Lambert's airlines, city government leaders and others. Additional public input also will be sought.

"Our hope would be is we can talk about this in the next 24 months and come to a decision," she said. "It just depends how agreeable everybody is."

A cost estimate has yet to be devised for the preliminary plan but Hamm-Niebruegge said "you can't touch a new terminal at less than a billion" dollars.

She said the selling of bonds repaid by airline fees, existing passenger facility charges tacked on to airline tickets and federal funds are among the ways such a project could be funded.

Asked whether any local tax increase would be needed, she said "I don't see us doing that."

She said the preparation of a 20-year guide for Lambert's future is required by the Federal Aviation Administration.

However, she said "if all the stars align and if everybody agrees," it's possible that such a project could be carried out sooner, in 10 to 12 years.

Work on the current study began in 2020 under then-Mayor Lyda Krewson and has continued under her successor, Tishaura O. Jones. Hamm-Niebruegge has been director since 2010; she was first appointed by then-Mayor Francis Slay and retained by Krewson and Jones.

Switching to a single terminal also was recommended in a 2012 Lambert master plan and in 2019 by a group of consultants hired by a city panel that explored leasing Lambert to private companies and using some of the revenue to upgrade the airport.

Krewson in late 2019 abruptly stopped that two-year process, citing a lack of broad support, including from the business community. Jones is a longtime opponent of privatizing Lambert.

Jones' spokesman, Nick Dunne, declined to comment on the WSP idea because it's "in the proposal stages."

"We'll be watching the process as it plays out," he said.

The current WSP proposal calls for a single terminal with 1.57 million square feet. The airport's two current terminals total 1.3 million square feet.

WSP's recently-released study says Lambert's current Terminal 1 has surplus space but is "functionally obsolete."

John van Woensel, a WSP vice president, noted that the terminal's A and C concourses are 75 foot wide, below the 110-foot standard in more modern domestic terminals.

He also noted that the use of two security checkpoints in Terminal 1 limits the ability of passengers in one concourse to go to restaurants and stores in another. He also said concessions in Terminal 1 are inadequate "but there's just not enough room" to put more in.

"All the space needs to be updated to today's standards," he said of Terminal 1. "The gates were designed for smaller aircraft and lower load factors."

He said lack of space is the issue in Terminal 2, where Southwest Airlines, Lambert's dominant carrier, operates. "It's just that Southwest has grown so much" at Lambert, he said. "It's a very tight site."

WSP also says there are long walking distances in Terminal 2 for Southwest's connecting passengers.

The switch to a single linear concourse, the firm said, would allow Lambert to improve conditions for motorists using airport drives.

Among current issues, the firm said, are "signage overload" near Terminal 1 and too short a distance to make decisions on turns near both terminals.

___

(c)2022 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at www.stltoday.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.