Germany’s Lufthansa Airlines announced plans to begin offering direct flights from St. Louis Lambert International Airport, in St. Louis, Missouri, to the airline’s hub at Frankfurt Airport in Germany.
“With this flight we will connect the heart of Europe with the heartland of the U.S.,” said Frank Naeve, Vice President of Sales at Lufthansa Group Passenger Airlines for the Americas. “Our commitment to all of you is that we will work tirelessly to make that a success.”
There are currently around 50 German companies operating in Missouri including Bayer, Merck, Siemens and BASF. Fifteen Missouri companies have a presence in Germany including Enterprise Holdings, Emerson, Bunge and Maritz.The planned schedule includes three flights per week on board Lufthansa’s Airbus A330 aircraft beginning in June 2022.
The 255-seat Airbus A330 won’t just transport passengers, Naeve said. It also will carry “substantial amounts of high-value goods,” adding that the flight would support “efficient supply chains” that have become “more important over the last months.”
An incentive package put together by local businesses, an arm of St. Louis County government and the city-owned airport helped St. Louis land direct service to the European continent.
“It shows that people are behind it,” Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “You need business travelers to make flights successful.”
Greater St. Louis CEO Jason Hall called it “a historic reminder of what we can accomplish together.”
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