Primary Runway Re-Opened After Extensive Rehabilitation
The recent completion of $7.4 million in improvements at
historic St. Louis Downtown Airport is expected to provide a
welcome boost to business aviation air traffic and related
activities at the facility. The airport’s 7,001-foot primary
runway reopened in early November after being repaved and widened
from 100 to 150 feet. A high-intensity runway lighting system with
precision approach path indicators at both ends also was
installed.
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The runway, which was closed for six months, now can handle
aircraft up to 200,000 pounds, which makes it easily accessible by
large commercial jets, such as Boeing 757s and Airbus 320s, as well
as long-range business jets, said Bob McDaniel, airport
director.
Given its close proximity to downtown St. Louis – only
three miles to the city’s famed Gateway Arch from the
airport’s location across the Mississippi River in Cahokia,
IL – the improvements make the airport even more attractive
to business travelers flying into the city.
The upgrades also are expected to boost business for the
airport’s largest private employer, Jet Aviation (formerly
Midcoast Aviation), a division of General Dynamics employing about
1,200 people at the airport. “A couple of years ago, they
built two large hangars with the idea of getting multiple aircraft
in them,” McDaniel said. “They knew at some point in
the future they’d be going after [additional aircraft] for
modification and overhaul.”
Nearly 2,000 people work at the airport, which is home to 26
aviation-related businesses and has an annual economic impact of
$300 million. Its many business aviation operations include all of
the St. Louis area’s news and traffic helicopters.
“Being only minutes from all of the St. Louis area major
medical centers, there’s not a day that goes by that we
don’t have at least a couple of ambulances on the ramp for
organs for transplant and patient transfers,” McDaniel
said.
Opened in 1928 as Curtiss-Steinberg Airport, the facility has a
storied past. Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart both flew in and
out of the airport. However, it closed in 1959, only to reopen in
1965 as Bi-State Parks Airport. It was renamed St. Louis Downtown
Airport in 1999.
Traffic at the airport peaked at about 240,000 operations in
2001. “Starting in 2007, we started seeing a decline in
operations,” McDaniel said, adding that the airport was
averaging about 120,000 takeoffs and landings this year.
With the improvements completed, he expects air traffic to
increase next year. “We’re already seeing an increase
in traffic with the reopening of the runway” he said.
“Our traffic mix is probably about two-thirds business
aviation flying to St. Louis to do business and one-third
training.”
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