St. Louis Cardinals Home Opener Brings Variety of Aircraft to St. Louis Downtown Airport

By Carmelo Turdo

St. Louis came alive with the start of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball season, and yesterday's opening day game at Busch Stadium brought in fans from around the Midwest.  Midwest Aviation played a role in getting the fans to St. Louis, and St. Louis Downtown Airport as the destination for many of the aircraft in which they flew.  The airport is the closest one to downtown St. Louis, and so it becomes a beehive of activity when visitors arrive for Cardinals playoff and World Series games, events at nearby Gateway Motorsports Park, conventions and concerts.  The airport is also host to charter aircraft for visiting hockey and college basketball teams.  

Along with the daily and peak air traffic, St. Louis Downtown Airport is host to organic aviation assets.  The Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum is located in an historic 1929 Curtiss-Wright hangar on the west apron, and FBO Ideal Aviation is the museum's neighbor.  Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology (St. Louis University), founded in 1927 and the first federally certified school of aeronautics, maintains their flight training fleet at the airport.  Jet Aviation St. Louis provides maintenance, refurbishments and completions for business jets as well as FBO services on the north apron.  Flight training schools on the airport include Ideal Aviation, St. Louis Flight Training and Midwest Rotor.  Also based at the airport are Fostaire Helicopters, Helicopters, Inc., and Gateway Helicopter Tours.  Also during the summer, St. Louis Biplane Rides offers scenic flights in a 1941 Waco open cockpit biplane.          

We have a sample of activity from Sunday's St. Louis Cardinals baseball season opening day, including a banner flight and a charter 737.