Aviation News –
A historic milestone will take place for St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL/KSTL) on April 19th, as it will gain nonstop flights from another market in Europe, to be operated by the country’s flag carrier.
At 19:30 local time on April 19th, British Airways’ inaugural flight from London Heathrow will land in St. Louis, marking the beginning of a new era. For the first time in over 20 years, Missouri will have regular flights to the United Kingdom, becoming its second regular market in Europe.
British Airways will operate four weekly frequencies between London and St. Louis using Boeing 787-8 and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft configured for 204 and 216 passengers, respectively. The 787-8s, which are scheduled to perform most of the services, have 31 seats in Business, 37 in Premium Economy, and 136 in Economy, while the 787-9s feature four classes, with 8 seats in First, 42 in Business, 39 in Premium Economy, and 127 in Economy.
As you can see in our database, the airline has 42 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in its fleet, including 12 Boeing 787-8s, 18 Boeing 787-9s, and 12 Boeing 787-10s.
St. Louis will become British Airways’ 26th destination in the United States, further consolidating its position as the leading airline on the UK-U.S. market, as well as one of Europe’s leading airlines in the United States. Most of its operations are centered at London Heathrow Airport, although it also offers flights to/from London Gatwick.
Schedule between London and St. Louis
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday
- BA 221 London LHR 16:25 · 19:30 STL St. Louis
- BA 220 St. Louis STL 21:35 · 11:35+1 LHR London
The London – St. Louis route will be seasonal, as the carrier plans to operate it during the summer.
The second European destination
London is about 6,600 kilometers away from St. Louis, which will join Frankfurt as the European cities connected to the U.S. city. Lufthansa is the only airline operating flights between Germany and St. Louis, providing three services per week using Airbus A330-300 aircraft, seating 255 passengers.
With British Airways and Lufthansa, St. Louis will have seven weekly nonstop flights to Europe. Both airlines are the only carriers operating at Lambert International Airport with wide-body aircraft, as all U.S. airlines use narrow-body aircraft. This does not include cargo carriers such as Atlas Air, FedEx, and UPS, which operate in STL with Boeing 747s, Boeing 767s, and Airbus A300s, respectively.
As for U.S. passenger airlines, Alaska Airlines (AS/ASA), American Airlines (AA/AAL), Delta Air Lines (DL/DAL), Frontier Airlines (F9/FFT), Southern Airways Express (9X/FDY), Southwest (WN/SWA), and United Airlines (UA/UAL) serve St. Louis, with Southwest Airlines being the leading carrier, offering both domestic and international flights.
St. Louis’ domestic routes
Frontier serves four weekly frequencies between St. Louis and San Juan (Puerto Rico) with A321s.
St. Louis Lambert Airport mainly operates domestic flights, representing over 90% of daily services. In addition to Frankfurt and London Heathrow, the city is connected to Cancún and Toronto, with 15 and 7 weekly flights, respectively. Cancún is served by Frontier and Southwest, and Toronto by Air Canada.
According to our database, the airport handles approximately 450 daily operations, comprising 225 landings and 225 takeoffs. It has four runways, with thresholds 06-24, 11-29, 12L-30R, and 12R-30L, having used all thresholds over the past week. 60% of flights used runways 12L and 12R.
British Airways in the US
The carrier operates a significant number of flights to the United States, all of which are offered from the British capital. A majority of these flights depart from Heathrow Airport, its main hub, but it also provides some flights from Gatwick Airport, which are conducted by Boeing 777-200(ER) aircraft.
At Heathrow, as per our database, British Airways operates flights to Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, and now St. Louis as well.
Meanwhile, BA serves Orlando and Tampa from Gatwick, bringing the total to three daily flights on the London Gatwick–United States market between these two routes. Since these flights operate from/to Gatwick, the flight numbers begin with a 2, being BA 2037/36 and BA 2039/38 on the London–Orlando route, and BA 2167/66 on the London–Tampa route.
Routes
