To be honest, the news was not much of a surprise.
On Wednesday, J.D. Power released its annual survey of travelers’ attitudes toward U.S. and Canadian airports. Most airports fared worse this year than last, but St. Louis Lambert International Airport did even worse than most.
Lambert landed 23rd on the list of 27 airports of its size — between 10 million and 32.9 million passengers a year.
The difference, according to Michael Taylor, an analyst at J.D. Power specializing in travel, hospitality and retail, is investment. Airports that have spent up to multiple billions of dollars on improvements tended to score well.
Lambert has not done so yet, but it does have a plan to make changes in the future.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Lambert saw about 16 million passengers, according to an open house presentation held in May. By 2040, it expects to see 21 million passengers, give or take a million.
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So the problems with crowds — and waits, and lines, and parking — will only get worse unless the airport can expand.
A master plan for the airport currently proposes adding space onto what is now Terminal 1 to create a single, greatly expanded location for all flights, including at least 10 new gates. Other proposed changes include wider concourses, an improved security checkpoint, a less confusing system of roads into the airport and more.
At a presentation held in May to discuss this plan, representatives of the airport acknowledged problems with crowds — and waits, and lines, and parking. And they pointed out some unique logistical challenges in dealing with these issues.
Interstate 70 runs just in front of the airport, which makes expansion to the south impossible. And access could be improved by moving service roads, but any changes would have to be carefully planned to avoid adversely affecting nearby communities.
The airport has done enough of that in the past. Which is presumably why it is trying so hard not to do it again now.
The survey asked more than 26,000 travelers to rate the airports they had been to in the last 30 days. The six categories they were to make their ratings on, in descending order of importance, were terminal facilities, airport arrival and departure, baggage claim, security check, check-in and baggage check, and food, beverage and retail options.
Lambert scored in the bottom one-third or one-quarter in each of the categories.
Taylor said that travelers’ expectations for airports have changed. Airports used to be merely functional, places where people would go to get onto or off from an airplane.
But now, he said, they are more of a destination in themselves. With increased delays and longer waits to make connections, travelers are spending more time in airports and would like them to be more pleasant.
Airports that score well in satisfaction surveys tend to be open and airy, he said. They are more like a mall. They have a large selection of food and beverage choices, along with retail stores for varied interests.
Ideally, he said, airports should have a mix of popular national chain restaurants (Lambert has a Burger King, a California Pizza Kitchen and a Chili’s, but no McDonald’s or KFC) and local restaurants to give the airport a local identity.
That is where Lambert actually does well, I told him. Though the airport does not have as many places to eat as some others, most of the restaurants are local: The Pasta House, Mike Shannon’s Grill, Three Kings (and its Mexican offshoot, Tres Reyes), Schlafly, Urban Chestnut, several Anheuser-Busch places and more.
But to people who don’t live here, none of these speaks especially of St. Louis. You can get crab cakes in Baltimore and barbecue in Dallas. But only St. Louisans know what it means to get an order of toasted ravioli at the airport Pasta House.