St. Louis airport planners foresee new single passenger terminal | Politics

“The challenge is just the aging infrastructure and the cost of meeting that,” she said. “We think it’s time to start talking about this.”

Hamm-Niebruegge emphasized, however, that no decision has been made to go forward with the idea. She said many detailed discussions are still needed with Lambert’s airlines, city government leaders and others. Additional public input also will be sought.

“Our hope would be is we can talk about this in the next 24 months and come to a decision,” she said. “It just depends how agreeable everybody is.”

A cost estimate has yet to be devised for the preliminary plan but Hamm-Niebruegge said “you can’t touch a new terminal at less than a billion” dollars.

She said the selling of bonds repaid by airline fees, existing passenger facility charges tacked on to airline tickets and federal funds are among the ways such a project could be funded.

Asked whether any local tax increase would be needed, she said…