St. Louis Lambert International Airport

St. Louis Lambert International Airport is the principal airport of the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area and the largest and busiest airport in Missouri. Located in the St. Louis County municipality of Bridgeton and Berkeley 10 mi (16 km) northwest of downtown St. Louis, STL handles 125 routes to 78 destinations operated by 20 airlines. Lambert is one of the oldest continuously operating commercial airports in the United States — its civil origins trace to 1920, and it was the home field of the 1927 Spirit of St. Louis that flew Charles Lindbergh solo across the Atlantic. The airport's name honors Major Albert Bond Lambert, a pioneer of early-20th-century St. Louis aviation. STL served for decades as a TWA hub and was the original TWA flagship base before the carrier's collapse and absorption into American Airlines in 2001. No airline currently operates a hub at STL, and the route network has rebuilt around a competitive focus-city mix in the 25 years since the TWA/American de-hubbing reshaped the airport's architecture. Southwest Airlines is by far the largest carrier, and STL is one of Southwest's most important East-of-Rockies focus cities with extensive daily mainline service. American, Delta, United, JetBlue, Frontier, Spirit, Allegiant, Air Canada Express, and seasonal Sun Country, Alaska, Breeze, and Avelo service round out the mix. International-lite service includes seasonal British Airways (historical), Cayman Airways (Grand Cayman seasonal), and regular charter operations. The route map is dominated by major hub connectivity and mainstream leisure destinations. The airfield has four concrete runways — 12R/30L at 11,020 ft (3,359 m), 12L/30R at 9,013 ft (2,747 m), 11/29 at 9,000 ft (2,743 m), and 06/24 at 7,603 ft (2,318 m) — the largest runway complement at any single-terminal-cluster Missouri airport and a legacy of the airport's former hub-capacity design. Elevation is 618 ft (188 m). The terminal configuration uses Terminal 1 (the historic Minoru Yamasaki-designed domed structure opened in 1956 and a recognized modernist architectural work) and Terminal 2 for different carrier groupings. A long-planned major modernization and possible combination of the two terminals is under ongoing planning and public consultation.