ST. LOUIS — Lufthansa Airlines is preparing for takeoff in St. Louis. The airline will soon have direct flights out of St. Louis Lambert International Airport to Germany.
Lufthansa will operate nonstop flights to the airline's hub at Frankfurt Airport starting in June 2022. The schedule includes three flights per week on board AirBus A330 planes.
Tickets are now on sale for the first flights.
"With this flight we will connect the heart of Europe with the heartland of the U.S.," said Frank Naeve during a Tuesday afternoon briefing. He serves as Lufthansa Group Passenger Airlines for the Americas' vice president of sales. "Our commitment to all of you is that we will work tirelessly to make that a success."
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said the new partnership will strengthen St. Louis' ties to Europe, and Mayor Tishaura Jones added that it'll help connect the world to St. Louis.
Watch the full announcement in the video below:
And experts agree.
"You might look at what happened during the loss of international travel from TWA," said Ray Mundy. "We lost a number of major companies and their headquarters here in St Louis due to the fact that our service was not as direct to Europe as it once was."
Mundy is the former director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He's currently the executive director of the Airport Ground Transportation Association.
Mundy said the addition of the Frankfurt route could lead to increased competition and more destinations, saying "nothing draws more airlines in your market other than success."
Lambert currently only flies nonstop to three international destinations: Cancun, Mexico; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Right now, St. Louis is the largest American market without nonstop service to Europe.
The flights to Germany will be the only direct flights from St. Louis to Europe, and they'll be the first nonstop flights to continental Europe in nearly two decades. The last time Lambert flights flew nonstop to continental Europe was on TWA with flights to Paris back in September 2001. And American Airlines ended nonstop service to London Gatwick Airport in October 2003, Greater St. Louis, Inc. leaders said in a news release Tuesday.
Leaders Tuesday afternoon touted how the destination in Germany will make it even easier for St. Louis area residents to connect to destinations around the world. Frankfurt Airport is a hub for high-speed trains that travel throughout Europe. Lufthansa also has connecting flights to more than 155 other destinations from its Frankfurt hub.
"St. Louis, get your passports ready, because travel to the rest of the world just got so much easier," Major Jones said.
"This is a great moment for our region, and I look forward to building off this exciting announcement to attract new business and industry,” Page added.
This is a developing story that will continue to be updated.