St. Louis-Lambert International Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge is announcing her retirement, effective in the fall of 2026.
She joined KMOX to reflect on her career, from her days at TWA to navigating the airport through major challenges — like the American de-hubbing and the Good Friday tornado — and its future with the new single-terminal plan.
Q: Can you tell us about your journey through the airline industry?
A: It's been an incredible journey for me.
Since 1982, starting in New York with Ozark Airlines at LaGuardia Airport and then eventually coming to St. Louis with TWA in a wide range of jobs. Ultimately, I started running the Passenger Services department and then the Eastern region for TWA... and then I ran the hub for several years, and then became the Vice President for the North American airports for TWA. So I had 101 airports, a lot of exposure to airports, how they operated, learning the things that we as airlines liked or didn't like about various airports.
When American bought TWA, with three children all in high school at the time and my husband here, we needed to stay in St. Louis. American had asked if I would stay with them, and I went back to running the hub operation here. Unfortunately, those last several years I kind of had the role of taking it apart.
From there, when I announced that I was going to retire the first time, back in 2009, Mayor Slay reached out and asked if I would talk to him regarding the airport. And so, over the next several months, we had a lot of discussions... to talk about the airport and how do we regain some of the significance that we had lost. I was appointed by Mayor Slay in 2009 and began the journey here at Lambert on January 2nd, 2010.
Q: Many cities like Cleveland, Cincinnatti, Pittsburgh have also found themselves dehubbed by a legacy airline. But you accomplished what those other cities are jealous of, bringing in Southwest and building a connection flow point again. How?
A: Well, it was a tough time... but for me, it was just a natural fit because I loved this airport, we love this city, we love this region. I think what I didn't realize is the daunting task it was to really figure out the path forward. And so for that first year, year and a half, I spent so much time really working with the business community, really working with the elected officials and saying, "Here are some of the ideas... but this has to be a joint effort, right? One person cannot do this on their own."
I think Southwest for us was the logical partner. All of the airlines had consolidated down, at that time, into four carriers, now really three carriers. So it was a way to look at different opportunities. Southwest was what we kept focusing on because they were, at the time, growing more point-to-point and connecting service.
For us, we knew that the legacy carriers weren't going to move a hub into a region of 2.8 million people; they were moving out of those cities. So Southwest became the logical choice.
Q: I can imagine back in 2010 one of the first words uttered to you from the business community was "London." What was it that finally broke to bring Lufthansa and British Airways to St. Louis? It's also important to note that TWA's old service from here to London was to Gatwick Airport. This is to Heathrow!
A: Yeah, this is to Heathrow, and obviously the probably the most desired — both Frankfurt and Heathrow are the most desired destinations in Europe. Being able to bring Heathrow to the table is even a bigger win than what we had in our hub days going into Gatwick; it's the much more preferred airport for most of the business community.
And, so, pulling that together and being able to work with the airline, being able to work with the business community, Explore St. Louis, and then the team here to really put a package together to talk about, "What is our story? How can we sell this?"
We did have the success of Lufthansa. That was a big piece of helping us prove our point. Then Lufthansa announced they were going to five-a-week because of the success here. All of those things played in together.
[London on British Airways] was probably the peak moment of my career, because it was something that we had been asked by the business community to do since 2010.
Q: What do you remember about the night of the Good Friday tornado?
A: My husband and I were celebrating a birthday dinner with some friends... and I kept getting texts and was talking to the team, and one of the operations people called me and said, "Rhonda, we've just been hit." And I'm like, "Hit? Hit by what?" And he said, "The tornado."
I jumped out of my seat, my husband drove me up here. And I remember thinking as we were driving, "Oh, it doesn't look too bad." And then as we got right across that ridge coming down Lindbergh and coming across 70, all of a sudden you see the damage and my heart just sunk. Because I thought, "Oh my God, you know, what's this going to be like?"
So, until I walked into the airport — and literally this was within 15 minutes of the tornado hitting — walked into the airport and saw the organized team already... the police were out searching for anybody that was hurt, EMT and the firefighters were there. Everybody was calm. It gave me a sense of relief: the strength of the team there.
But that was what I remember the most, was just that sinking feeling in my stomach as we came across 70 from Lindbergh... but then walking inside and getting that sense of, "Okay, we can handle this."
Q: Now, from the past to the future, you've put together the plan... replacing the concourses, a single terminal, single security, while keeping the historic Arched main terminal. What do you think about prospects for getting this new airport plan built?
A: I think the prospects are strong.
It is a massive project and it's a multi-billion dollar project. We worked with the airlines, all seeing the need. We also looked at how do we get this done... and what things absolutely have to take place first. That was some of the infrastructure, the central utility plant, the demo of the Missouri Air National Guard, a new airfield maintenance facility. All of those things were Phase One. We got that approved a couple of years ago.
The next phase was to really bring the program management team on board... That's all in place. So we've got the two design teams, HOK with the terminal, we've got HDR with the roadway and the garage. We'll have that 30% design mark by January. We'll get to the 60% design by the summer, and that allows us to get a guaranteed price. Then that final step is really making sure that we get the authority to move to 90% and then the authority to construct.
So there's going to be challenges along the way, but I really think we can get to that finish line.
Q: One of the themes of your tenure is the way you've pulled together the region to achieve goals. How have you been able to do that? I think a lot of people would like to know your secret.
A: I did have a strong knowledge of the industry because I had spent 27 years in aviation. So I think I came to the airport with a strong background.
It wasn't an airport background, but I had the aviation background and I had worked with so many different airports, and I learned during that time how to build those relationships. There were airports that I was responsible for within North America that I really did not like working with. There were other airports that I thought, "Well, these are great teams, they understand both sides: the airline side of the house and the airport."
So, when I took this job, I used a lot of that background and a lot of the knowledge I had gained to say, "How do we make this airport better? How do we try to bring it back?" And the key to that was making sure that you had good relationships with the airlines and making sure you had good relationships with the business community, seeing that the vision and that the plan was where they wanted to go.
I think that first year, Mike, I think I was out at a hundred different events speaking — breakfast, lunch, dinner — about the challenges we were facing, about where we can go, about the industry, educating people on really how airports work, what the change happened in the industry, and why we were affected and more changes were coming down the pike.
It was that constant ability to not shy away from being out there and trying to answer the questions. And I think my knowledge base was strong enough that I could answer those questions with confidence.
I think it also goes to the success of getting through the tornado hit. Within a half an hour, I had calls from business leaders all across the region saying, "What do you need? Where's the help? What do you need?" And I asked them for help and they came.
Also, realizing that these are not single-person jobs, right? You may have a title and you may be the person at the helm, but they're not single-person jobs. If you can't bring your team together, if you can't bring the airlines together, if you can't bring the region, the elected officials together, it's just not going to be successful.
I think we have one of the strongest teams in the industry. Their knowledge and their dedication is just incredible. That's going to be a key piece for everybody to keep. Make sure that as we move forward and a change comes and a transition comes, people think about those partnerships with the airlines and how important they are. People think about those partnerships with the business community, the elected officials, the airport, and the employees, and keeping everybody in the loop and not shying away from the hard topics, right?
There's hard topics every day in this business. You can't shy away from them. You have to face them head-on and then at the end of the day, come to a reasonable agreement that everybody can support.
Q: You're still on the job through the fall of 2026. What are your plans after that?
A: Oh, lots!! We want to do a lot of travel. There's places that my husband and I both have traveled, but there's just a lot of places we want to go together that we haven't been.
I was laughing because I was telling some of my team this morning, "I can't wait 'til the day I can sit at home in front of the fire and look out the window and be happy about snow." I have dreaded snow since the day I started in this business. So, for 43 years, I've never been able to enjoy snowfalls. I look forward to doing that.
I look forward to being able to take a step back. We've got five grandchildren, one on the way. And I'll stay engaged. We are St. Louisans, we're not leaving St. Louis. I'm involved in a lot of other things and I plan to continue that, but at the pace and time that suits me.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.