New runway at Lambert

Today Lambert (STL) will open it’s new runway with the first arrival of JetCorp 150 carrying airport dignitaries.

News article: lambert-pmo.org/id39.asp
Flight track: flightaware.com/live/flight/UEJ150

LAMBERT AIRPORT TO OPEN NEW RUNWAY ON THURSDAY

Dignitaries will cut the ribbon Thursday on the new 9,000-foot runway at Lambert Airport. The billion-dollar project is the most expensive in St. Louis history and many argue that it wasn’t necessary. The runway was approved in 1998 when Lambert was TWA’s primary hub, but since then American Airlines bought TWA and pulled the hub from St. Louis. Last year traffic at the airport was 36% lower than the time before 9/11. The city of Berkeley was most affected by this new runway and Mayor Kyra Watson said on FOX 2 News in the Morning, “My opinion right now is that this a regional issue. There are many jobs that are leaving this area, and we need to do everything we can to import jobs and maintain what we have. So looking at it from a regional picture, I hope it’s something that is very successful.” Mayor Watson said the buyout to make way for the runway was tough on her city, but the new southeast Berkeley development is helping to bring jobs back into the area.

Right now SWA serves a lot of cities on a non-stop basis
but with low frequency. SWA has 12 gates and 69 daily
departures to 23 cities (non-stop). Will the new runaway
help SWA with their frequency? Lambert can be used to
back door to Love as well.

I had the good fortune of being a passenger on American Airlines Flight 2470 (AAL2470), the first commercial airliner to land on Runway 11-29. I took pictures during the flight from my seat. I created a web page with the pictures and related information. In case you are interested you may view the web page at:

http://webpages.charter.net/dandassow/Flight_2470.htm

American Airlines Flight 2470 was the first commercial airliner to land on Runway 11-29, the newest runway at Lambert St. Louis International Airport. Flight 2470 departed from gate 8 at Santa Ana-John Wayne-Orange County Airport, Irvine, California at 9:12 AM Pacific Daylight Time and took off around 9:33 AM PDT. The pilot informed the passengers that we would be the first commercial airliner to land on this runway five minutes prior to landing. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Flight 2470 landed April 13, 2006 at 2:28 PM Central Daylight Time. The flight arrived at gate C16 at Lambert St. Louis International Airport. Flight 2470 is an MD-83 built by The Boeing Company.

Dan Dassow

The Lambert St. Louis International Airport Expansion Program website posted pictures of the April 13, 2006 Runway 11-29 opening ceremonies during the weekend of June 3-4, 2006.
lambert-pmo.org/photogallery … =/2006/04/

Featured on that page are pictures of the DC-3 from the Prairie Aviation Museum.
prairieaviationmuseum.org/dc3/index.htm

lambert-pmo.org/photogallery/2006/04/dc3.gif
Former Ozark Air Lines pilots flew a DC-3 from the Prairie Aviation Museum in Bloomington, Ill., to participate in the runway ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

lambert-pmo.org/photogallery … rt1406.gif
The first aircraft wearing commercial colors to depart from Runway 11-29 was an historic DC-3 that participated in ribbon-cutting festivities.

lambert-pmo.org/photogallery … rt2406.gif
The historic DC-3 departs Runway 11-29.

The flight path of this flight is on
flightaware.com/live/flight/N763 … /KSTL/KBMI