ZakkW

Tornado Damage at Airport; airport believed to be shut down. Power is out. Officials are to make statement soon. At least one injury per local Fox news. Flights may be affected today and tomorrow.

Airport is open but operations are suspended. No flights in or out for the moment. Some airplanes are the runway with passengers.

ZakkW

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For information on the STL Admirals Club, which is temporarily closed, please see:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

dstan
AA Forum Co-Moderator

ZakkW

Planes diverted from St. Louis. Damage ont he news is pretty shocking. Open time is unknown. Airport is officially closed.

All the above per Fox news. Someone on AA flight was interviewed. Plane was spun around (possibly). Possible damage on the back of the airport.

Doing the best I can to transcribe whats on the news...

Link to article here -> http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-sev...,2243282.story

ZakkW

ESpen36

AIRPORT STATUS INFORMATION
Air Traffic Control System Command Center

Lambert-St Louis International Airport (STL) Real-time Status
The status information provided on this site indicates general airport conditions; it is not flight-specific. Check with your airline to determine if your flight is affected.

Due to TORNADO DAMAGE, the Lambert-St Louis International Airport (STL) was closed as of Apr 22 at 08:54 PM CDT. The date/time when the airport is expected to reopen is not known.

hockeystl

(Duplicate post from DL forum...thought it might still have some relevancy here)

I'm back home and, wow, the damage in the area of Lambert truly defies words.

More amazing is the job the staff at Lambert has done to get ops back up. DL's operations all appear business as usual and I saw nary a sign of the storm near their A gates. TSA line at A was normal for 1630 on a Sunday. Saw no line for B and, while the C TSA screening was functional there was nary a pax in sight. Did not venture over to T2/E Term.

Saw the FL jets parked at B (where I thought had been converted to offices; guess I was incorrect on that one). Saw the damaged AA 757 parked on the pad near W1W that UA usually uses to park extra ACs.

What was truly amazing was my car, parked directly across the street at SkyPark had nary a piece of debris on it....let alone actual damage. Then, on the drive home, my pristine windshield got a direct hit from a semi which resulted in a big dinger. I cussed for about 0.6 seconds til I looked out and saw a flattened house to my right as I drove west on I-70 near the Rock Road.

knirbed

I flew out of STL on April 25. I went to the airport with a colleague who was on a 12:30 flight to LAX. My flight was to DFW at 1:15. No problem with security although the elite/ AAPriority lane was not open. We made it through security in about 20 minutes. AA is using the "C" concourse security lanes which were in the process of being changed. The "D" concourse worked fine. It was a bit crowded at D4 for the LAX flight but not too bad. The worst thing was that there were no services (food, drinks, newstands) open on D.

Ironically, DFW shut down due to a storm and I was diverted to OK City to refuel. Got back to DFW and my flight to MSY was delayed so I made it. Long day with little food due to nothing at STL and no time at DFW.

douglass

First, according to a couple contractors/security personnel (not TSA), Terminal C will be completely demolished and rebuilt. The whole structure was moved approximately 6 inches and is unstable. The insurance people kicked all the contractors out yesterday.

Terminal D is being prepared for the medium haul. Restaurants/bars were preparing to open and new support structure/carpet/etc. was being installed throughout the terminal.

The Admirals Club will most likely open in the old "Cheers" restaurant space near the entrance of D. They do not expect it to be large, but want something to keep the members happy.

They may open Terminal D all the way to the East Terminal (Southwest) again.

There is a general feeling among the employees that while the tornado was terrible, it may bring about some rather big positives--and perhaps a new AA commitment to St. Louis.

Rockett0

This is good news for STL. Thanks for posting the update.

AAerSTL

As a former STL resident I'd really like to see the airport administration do something similar to SEA. It would be great if we could demolish concourse C and create an expanded central security checkpoint in the Main Terminal (err Terminal 1) with shops, restaurants, Admirals Club, Delta Sky Club, and other amenities shared between the existing "A" and "D" concourses. Keep E and Terminal 2 as is but retain connection through D concourse. This would be sufficient capacity for the airports current and future needs and reduce operating and maintenance costs of the closed concourses. Sadly, the airport administration doesn't have the interest or credentials to run a quality airport and were placed by their city hall friends.

siankaan1

I left from there this morning, nothing to add to earlier reports except that it'll be at least a few days before things reopen on D. The kiosk that's across from D4 does have coffee, cold drinks and snack items, also fresh fruit.

Terminal D necessarily means a longer hike for the same number of gates compared to C, since it can only have gates on the north side of the terminal, but it nevertheless makes sense (at least to me, what little I know about it really) to just demolish C rather than rebuild it.

And I'd like to see them reopen D all the way to terminal E. I understand that was a security weakness to have it open when nothing was operating out of there, but it would be a lot handier than leaving the building to catch the shuttle which connecting passengers have to do now.

DCAproducer

If I recall correctly, the airport director does have the experience to do her job. She has been in STL for years in the airline industry. You can't change an old culture overnight, but I have been impressed by the renovations that were underway before the storm. On the surface, I can't see how she isn't doing her job.

I know both here and on A.net people keep saying tear C down and refurb D. While I won't argue a new setup would be nice, I just don't see this being the long term solution. If they do have to rebuild C, I can see them building it out straight from the main terminal building instead of it having it's current dog leg. It would be a straight, modern concourse. D would then be permanently decommissioned and they could possibly connect the new C all the way to A.

It won't happen overnight, but if airline traffic does grow at Lambert, D is not capable of handling the growth. STL would suddenly go from an airport with ample spare gates to an airport with no room to grow.

AviationFan24

Hi Everyone I am a first time poster to AA FlyerTalk Thread. I have been following this topic and similar topics on other airline threads. Here is what I don't understand and I probably won't since I'm not an insurance agent. This seems like a terrible waste to me to rebuild concourse C, I agree with others who have posted similar comments. If you have an existing concourse D which as was stated above has the potential to be re-opened. Why spend the money on rebuilding a new terminal, could the funds instead be used to spruce up the existing terminals and concourses? That may well be the point of insurance is is specific to repair what was damaged not getting a check to use for whatever.

Charlie.

P.S. Thanks everyone for the updates on the aftermath of STL Tornado 2011.

dartagnan

Wow. Thanks for the update. If C will be demolished, that's HUGE news.

My wish list:

• Demolish the C gates
• New airside connection between A, B, and D
• Reconnect D to E gates
• Renovate per the previous plan - A, B, D

NYBanker

All great ideas...but as an investment manager involved in the ownership and operation of a world class airport (outside of the US, of course), what you are describing would likely take an extended period of time. Right or wrong (and we are commercially minded private owners operating under a flexible 99 year concession), proper planning and implementation of ideas like yours are not done overnight. While perhaps the government operator might not be the most nimble, we, as a skilled private operator (we own several airports in our fund), to do things other than haphazardly, recognize that pretty heavy planning is needed.

I don't know the capacity of the airport (though I understand there is plenty of excess), if I were the operator, I'd be balancing the need to restore acceptable service levels as quickly as possible, with the impetus provided by the storm to take some bolder measures.

Rockett0

Walking to the D gates should be no big deal, we did that for years.

And honestly the bootleg at gates C8/10/12 was always a mess of people and not enough room. Of course D gates had the habit of filling the entire walk area much like C2 used to do.

As for the AC moving to Cheers. I tried that place once years ago, once was enough. I don't recall how it was setup, but more than likely a lot of remodel would need to be done to add a desk, restrooms, etc. But once done, it sounds like that would work fine.

Connecting D and E - I just don't know if there is a lot of need for that. My only reason for ever wanting to get from A or E to C/D was to use the AC club before flying on someone other than AA/TWA.

dartagnan

Tweeted a link to this thread last night

"Terminal C @flystl has enough damage it will be demolished? Word from Flyertalk... http://ow.ly/4IzEv"

@flystl (the official Twitter feed) responded this morning:

"No word yet. Thanks for the inquiry though. Have a gerat day!"

Wonder if they're just being coy about the damage, or waiting on official reports?