Beginnings The airport had its beginnings in 1909, when the Aero Club of St. Louis created a
balloon launching base called the "Permanent Aviation Field and Dirigible Harbor" in
Kinloch Park, a suburban development of the 1890s. In October 1910, the airfield hosted the first International Air Meet, attracting "many famous persons," including the
Wright brothers, who brought six airplanes and their
Exhibition Team. President
Theodore Roosevelt accepted the club's telegraphed invitation to attend, and after initially ruling out a flight, took off on October 11 with pilot
Arch Hoxsey, becoming the first U.S. president to fly. The following year, the airfield—generally called "Kinloch Field"—was the takeoff point for what is generally regarded as the first
parachute jump from an airplane. The club's lease on the land expired in 1912, and the field was closed and its grandstand demolished. Efforts to revive the facility were unsuccessful. which named its facility the "St. Louis Flying Field." Among the Society's leading members was
Albert Bond Lambert, an Olympic silver medalist golfer in the
1904 Summer Games, president of Lambert Pharmaceutical Corporation (which made
Listerine), and the first person to receive a pilot's license in St. Louis. So vigorous was Lambert in his efforts to promote St. Louis aviation that in 1923 the field was renamed "Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field." Charles Lindbergh's first piloting job was flying airmail for
Robertson Aircraft Corporation from the airfield. He stopped at the airport during his cross-country San Diego to New York flight about a week before his record-breaking
flight to Paris in 1927. In February 1928, the City of St. Louis leased the airport for $1 million. Later that year, Lambert sold the airport to the city after a $2 million
bond issue was passed, making it one of the first
municipally owned airports in the United States. In 1930, the airport was officially christened "Lambert–St. Louis Municipal Airport" by Rear Admiral
Richard E. Byrd. The first terminal building opened in 1933, In August 1942, voters passed a $4.5 million bond issue to expand the airport by and build a new terminal.
After World War II: expansion, Ozark Air Lines hub at Lambert After the war, NAS St. Louis reverted to a reserve installation, supporting carrier-based
fighters and land-based
patrol aircraft. When it closed in 1958, most of its facilities were acquired by the
Missouri Air National Guard and became "Lambert Field Air National Guard Base." Some other facilities were retained by non-flying activities of the Naval Reserve and
Marine Corps Reserve, while the rest was redeveloped to expand airline operations at the airport. In 1971, the airport became "Lambert–St. Louis International Airport." A $20 million, extension of Concourse C for TWA and a $46 million, Concourse D for Ozark Air Lines (also designed by Sverdrup) were completed in December 1982. Ozark established its only hub at Lambert in the late 1950s. The airline grew rapidly, going from 36 million revenue passenger miles in 1955, to 229 million revenue passenger miles in 1965. The jet age came to Ozark in 1966 with the
Douglas DC-9-10 and its network expanded to Denver, Indianapolis, Louisville, Washington, D.C., New York City, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando. With the addition of jets, Ozark began its fastest period of growth, jumping to 653 million revenue passenger miles in 1970 and 936 million revenue passenger miles in 1975; Ozark soon faced heavy competition in TWA's new hub at Lambert. In 1979, the year after
airline deregulation, STL's dominant carriers were TWA (36 routes) and Ozark (25), followed by American (17) and Eastern (12). In April 1980,
British Caledonian began a nonstop flight to London's Gatwick Airport using a Boeing 707. This was the airport's first transatlantic service. The company later partnered with Ozark so that the latter's network could feed the flights. British Caledonian severed the link in October 1984.
Trans World Airlines hub at Lambert in 1985 After
airline deregulation in 1978, airlines began to change their operations to a
hub and spoke model. Trans World Airlines (TWA) was headquartered in New York City but its main base of employment was at
Kansas City International Airport (MCI) and had large operations at
Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) as well as St. Louis. TWA deemed Kansas City's terminals unsuitable to serve as a primary hub. TWA reluctantly ruled out Chicago, as its Chicago operation was already losing $25 million a year under competition from American Airlines and
United Airlines. This meant that St. Louis was the carrier's only viable option. TWA downsized in Chicago and built up in St. Louis, swapping three Chicago gates for five of American's St. Louis gates. By December 1982, St. Louis accounted for 20% of TWA's domestic capacity. Lambert's terminal was initially too small for this operation, and TWA was forced to use temporary terminals, mobile lounges and airstairs to handle the additional flights. Concourse D was completed in 1985. In April 1985, TWA began service from Lambert to London-Gatwick, Frankfurt, and Paris. It operated the flight to London with Boeing 747s and the ones to Paris and Frankfurt with 767s. TWA's hub grew again in 1986 when the airline bought Ozark Air Lines, which operated its hub from Lambert's B, C, and D concourses. In 1985, TWA had accounted for 56.6% of boardings at STL while Ozark accounted for 26.3%, so the merged carriers controlled over 80% of the traffic. The carriers were merged on October 26, 1986, at which time TWA served STL with nonstop service to 84 cities, an increase from 80 cities served by TWA and/or Ozark in 1985, before the merger. Lambert again grew in importance for TWA after the airline declared bankruptcy in 1992 and the following year moved its headquarters to St. Louis from
Mount Kisco, New York. TWA increased the number of cities served and started routing more connecting passengers through its hub at Lambert. The total number of passengers departing Lambert jumped almost 20% in a year, from 19.9 million passengers in 1993 to 23.4 million in 1994. Growth continued, to 27.3 million by 1997 and the airport's all-time peak of 30.6 million in 2000. By September 1999, Lambert was TWA's main hub, with 103 destinations served by 515 daily flights: 352 on TWA mainline aircraft and 163 on Trans World Express flights operated by its commuter airline partners. Lambert became the eighth-busiest U.S. airport by flights. Congestion caused delays during peak hours and was exacerbated when bad weather reduced the number of usable runways from three to one, and traffic projections made in the 1980s and 1990s predicted enough growth to strain the airport and the national air traffic system. As a result, city leaders decided to build a runway, dubbed Runway 11/29, parallel to the two larger existing runways. At $1.1 billion, it was the costliest public works program in St. Louis history. It required moving seven major roads and destroying about 2,000 homes, six churches, and four schools in
Bridgeton. Work began in 1998 and continued even as traffic at the airport declined after the
9/11 attacks, the collapse of TWA and its subsequent purchase by American, and American's flight reductions several years later.
American Airlines and hub closure at Lambert in August 2011 As TWA entered the new millennium, its financial condition deteriorated; it was purchased by American Airlines in April 2001. The last day of operations for TWA was December 1, 2001, including a ceremonial last flight to TWA's original and historic hometown of Kansas City before returning to St. Louis one final time. The following day, TWA was officially absorbed into American Airlines. The plan for Lambert was to become a reliever hub for the existing American hubs at
Chicago–O'Hare and
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW). American was looking at something strategic with its new St. Louis hub to potentially offload some of the pressure on O'Hare as well as provide a significant boost to the airline's east/west connectivity. The September 11 attacks depressed air service nationwide: total airline industry domestic revenue passenger miles dropped 20% in October 2001 and 17% in November 2001. Overnight, American no longer had the same need for a hub that bypassed its hubs at Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, which suddenly became less congested. As a result of this and the ongoing
economic recession, service at Lambert was reduced to 207 flights by November 2003. Total passenger traffic dropped to 20.4 million that same year. In 2006, the
United States Air Force (USAF) announced plans to turn the
131st Fighter Wing of the
Missouri Air National Guard into the 131st Bomb Wing. The wing's 20
F-15C and
F-15D aircraft were moved to the
Montana Air National Guard's
120th Airlift Wing at
Great Falls International Airport/Air National Guard Base, Montana, and the
Hawaii Air National Guard's
154th Wing at
Hickam AFB, Hawaii. The pilots and maintainers moved to
Whiteman AFB, Missouri to fly and maintain the
B-2 Spirit stealth bomber as the first
Air National Guard wing to fly the aircraft. Lambert Field Air National Guard Base formally shut down on June 13, 2009, when the final two F-15C Eagles did a low approach over the field and then flew away, ending an 86-year chapter of Lambert's history. 2006 also saw the completion of the W-1W airport expansion after eight years of work. The culmination of this program was the opening of Runway 11/29, the airport's fourth, on April 13, 2006, when American Airlines Flight 2470 became the first commercial airliner to land on the new runway. At Lambert, American shifted more flights from mainline to regional. Total passengers enplaned fell 6% to 14.4 million in 2008, then fell another 11% to 12.8 million passengers in 2009. American's closure of the St. Louis hub coincided with its new "Cornerstone" plan, wherein the airline would concentrate itself in several major markets: Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York, and Los Angeles. A 12-gate section of Concourse D closed in 2009 as a result of the hub closure. Further flight reductions led to the closure of Concourse B and the rest of Concourse D in 2010 (though some gates at the east end of Concourse D are now part of Concourse E).
Recent years In the aftermath of the American hub closure,
Southwest Airlines boosted daily departures from 74 to 83, adding six new destinations for a total of 31. Southwest quickly replaced American as the carrier with the most daily flights, and continues to dominate the airport to this day. Southwest Airlines had been growing steadily at Lambert since the mid-1990s. In 1998, the East Terminal (known today as Terminal 2) and Concourse E opened to accommodate Southwest's growth, where they operate today. On April 22, 2011, a
tornado (rated
EF4 nearby but not at the airport itself) struck the airport's Terminal 1, destroying jetways and breaking more than half of the windows. The wind damaged a Southwest Airlines aircraft by pushing a baggage conveyor belt into it. Four American Airlines aircraft were damaged, including one that was buffeted by 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 8:54 pm CDT, and reopened it the following day at temporarily lower capacity. The damage to Concourse C even forced the airport to temporarily reopen some of Concourses B and D for additional gate space. In late 2016, officials with the City of St. Louis announced that brand researchers had found that travelers might be confused by the name "Lambert–St. Louis International Airport". They said they might rename it St. Louis International Airport at Lambert Field to freshen up the airport's image and emphasize "St. Louis" in the name. Descendants of
Albert Bond Lambert opposed the change, arguing that it de-emphasized the importance of Maj. Lambert to the airport's history and the history of aviation. The proposal was amended, and the St. Louis Airport Commission voted unanimously to change the name to St. Louis Lambert International Airport. In May 2018,
Wow Air began flights between St. Louis and Reykjavík on an Airbus A321. This was the airport's first service to Europe since 2003. Despite strong sales, Wow ended the route in January 2019 amid financial struggles. In June 2022,
Lufthansa commenced nonstop service to Frankfurt using Airbus A330s. German firms like Bayer and the Merck Group have a significant presence in St. Louis. A second transatlantic flight was added in 2026, with
British Airways flying direct to London-
Heathrow. Lambert previously had service to Britain until 2003; however, this will be the airport's first flights to Heathrow as previous service was to
Gatwick. In early 2022, airport officials released a plan that would consolidate both existing terminals into one, at the existing Terminal 1 site. The proposal would gradually demolish Concourses A, B, C and build a single new concourse with 62 gates in its place, while retaining the iconic domed terminal building. Following the completion, Terminal 2 would be demolished or repurposed. ==Facilities==