Clinton National Airport announces that Southwest Airlines will resume flights between Little Rock and St. Louis next year — two a day beginning Jan. 6.
The old St. Louis-LR connections — about more than the former baseball tie between the Arkansas Travelers and the St. Louis Cardinals, but also on account of the Missouri Pacific Railroad (now Union Pacific) mainline — made the end of air service seem weird. But I’m a fogey. I used to fly TWA to the St. Louis hub for flights onward. No more TWA. No more hub.
Anyway, the details on the new service on a Boeing 737, with some introductory fares available at $49.
“We’ve been extremely focused on regaining nonstop service to St. Louis since it was discontinued in 2013,” said Ronald F. Mathieu, C.M., Executive Director of Clinton National Airport. “St. Louis is a popular destination for family fun or business in addition to giving our passengers additional connectivity.”
Little Rock passengers will be able to connect to an additional 30 Southwest Airlines destinations through St. Louis.
Flight Schedule:
Starting January 6, 2016Monday through Sunday
Little Rock to St. Louis 6:25 a.m. and 5:25 p.m.
St. Louis to Little Rock 10:25 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.
The airport will provide $30,000 to Southwest to market the new flights.
UPDATE: Southwest announced later in the day that other schedule changes in 2016 will end once-a-day flights to and from Chicago Midway and Baltimore. Both flights were operating under capacity, in the case of Midway because of multiple flights on other lines to O’Hare, a better transfer point. Flyers to Baltimore have Washington airports as options.