First China cargo flight lands at Lambert airport
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 24, 2011
By Ken Leiser
A China Cargo flight carrying 80 tons of manufactured products touched down at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on Friday afternoon.
The Boeing 777 marked the inaugural cargo flight between St. Louis and Shanghai, China. In the future, weekly cargo flights will arrive in the form of larger 747 jets, said Lambert Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge.
"This is the start of what could be a big thing for St. Louis and a big thing for Shanghai," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay told a group of dignitaries who gathered near the airport cargo facilities to welcome the first flight.
The plane will return to Shanghai with a fairly large shipment of components from 3M and a large shipment of compressors manufactured by St. Louis-based Emerson, Hamm-Niebruegge said.
Emerson President Edward Monsor told a group of business leaders earlier in the day that the region could turn the weakness of an underutilized airport into a potential strength -- an international cargo hub.
But St. Louis, he said, must seize the opportunity and "act decisively to make this happen now."
Regional leaders stressed that the initial China Cargo flight was just a first step toward opening the door to international cargo. Missouri lawmakers still hadn't reached agreement on a proposed package of tax breaks to help develop a cargo hub at Lambert.
Officials from the Chinese government also attended Friday's event.
"This symbolizes the friendship between our two countries with the arrival of an airplane in the heartland of the United States from the east coast of China," said Xia Xinghua, vice minister, Civil Aviation Administration of China.
