St. Louis-Lambert International Airport Expected to Get Wingtips Lounge
Back in January, I had posted that St. Louis-Lambert International Airport was expected to get its first ever common use airport lounge. A common use airport lounge is a lounge that doesn’t require a membership to enter rather, you can buy a day pass or gain access through a service like Priority Pass. Today, St. Louis-Lambert Airport has a single lounge, an Admiral’s Club available only to passengers traveling in and out of Terminal 1’s Concourse C. After months of bids and decision making, the St. Louis-Lambert Airport Commission approved the construction of a Wingtips lounge.
What is the Wingtips Lounge?
There’s a single Wingtips lounge operating at the moment. It’s located in New York-JFK’s Terminal 4. Priority Pass, Lounge Club, and Diner’s Club holders can gain complimentary access to the Wingtips lounge in JFK. Additionally, all passengers traveling through Terminal 4 can purchase a day pass for $50. A few international airlines also allow their first and business class passengers to use the lounge.
The Wingtips lounge is operated by Airport Terminal Services which is based in St. Louis. In addition to the JFK Wingtips Lounge, Airport Terminal Services (ATS) operates the Lufthansa Senators Lounge at Detriot-Metropolitan International Airport. Both the Wingtips lounge at JFK and Lufthansa Senators Lounge at DTW are fairly basic lounges. Amenities include free snacks, free soft drinks, a limited selection of self-serve alcohol, and a place to relax. Both lounges are certainly a step above The Club collection but are nothing too special.
St. Louis-Lambert Airport Wingtips Lounge
The Wingtips lounge in St. Louis still has quite a few hurdles to clear. The first of which is approval by the St. Louis City Board of Aldermen. If it’s cleared by the Board of Aldermen, the renderings and layout will likely be revised. After that, I’d imagine a fairly lengthy construction process.
What we do know is that the Wingtips lounge in St. Louis will be located in Terminal 2 in a recently renovated part of what was once Terminal 1. Based on earlier terminal layouts made available to bidders, the proposed Wingtips lounge will actually be fairly large. Amenities will include, free drinks, snacks, and private workstations.
The rendering above is the only available rendering at the moment. However, as more renderings are released, I’ll try to update this post.
Overall
This is fantastic news for St. Louis-Lambert International Airport. Southwest Airlines is the largest carrier at Lambert Airport yet, the terminal in which Southwest operates, lacked a common use lounge. Additionally, this lounge will likely act as a selling point and incentive to international carriers looking to expand to mid-sized markets in the US.
Airlines like British Airways often require that their premium cabin passengers have access to a lounge before departure. With a Wingtips lounge adjacent to the airport’s internationally equipped gates, foreign airlines would be able to provide their premium class passengers with access to a lounge. Regardless of whether or not St. Louis sees increased international flights as a result of the Wingtips lounge, I’m still very excited to see another lounge make its way into the airport.
Full Press Release at Flystl.com
Have you ever visited the Wingtips lounge at JFK? Would you visit a Wingtips lounge in St. Louis?
