New Non-stop Flight to London Takes Off
St. Louis celebrates new direct flight to London
On April 19, the St. Louis region celebrated the debut of the new non-stop flights from St. Louis to London. British Airways will now operate four flights a week between St. Louis and London. This is the first non-stop flight between the two cities since 2003. This new flight, which was announced at a special new conference on Oct. 1, 2025, will occur four times a week. St. Louis is the 27th U.S. destination for British Airways.
The inaugural flight event kicked off with a news conference at St. Louis Lambert International Airport featuring some of the most influential leaders in St. Louis. Among the speakers were St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page, St. Louis County Port Authority Chair Ambassador Kevin F. O’Malley, St. Louis Lambert International Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, Explore St. Louis CEO Brad Dean, British Airways Chief Planning and Strategy Officer Neil Chernoff and St. Louis Economic Development Partnership CEO and President Rodney Crim.
“As this flight was working its way through, we have a number of commercial interests in the U.K. that we want to bring to St. Louis and actually they want to connect with us, especially in the areas of agtech and geospatial technology,” O’Malley said at the news conference.
Crim remarked that industry research shows that non-stop service to Europe can generate between $50 million and $100 million annually for a metro economy.
This is the third new international flight to come to St. Louis in the last four years. In 2022, Lufthansa Airlines launched direct flights from St. Louis to Frankfurt, Germany. Air Canada began direct flights from St. Louis to Montreal in 2024.
The news conference was followed by a cake and ribbon cutting at the departure gate as well as greeting the arrival of the plane from London Heathrow Airport, which included passengers from London.
