Lufthansa has flown to St. Louis since June 2022. First, some basics....
Below we see the number of yearly departures and the load factors the route obtained each year.
A picture of a route growing in demand and performance emerges. Since 2022, the load and departures have only grown. Onboards have remained stable throughout the flight’s existence.
Since the route’s inception, it has been flown by an Airbus 330-300 aircraft. With the exception of two departues in 2025, that has not changed. Said two departures used an Airbus 340-300.
Where are the passengers going?
Below is a map of the top 10 destinations, originating from STL on LH, that passengers are destined for.
Averaged daily from May 2024 to May 2025 in PDEW (passengers daily each way), they break down below.
- Frankfurt (FRA): 37
- Munich (MUC): 8
- Sarajevo (SJJ): 6
- Budapest (BUD): 5
- Hyderabad (HYD): 5
- Rome (FCO): 4
- Zagreb (ZAG): 4
- Athens (ATH): 4
- Prague (PRG): 4
- Berlin (BER): 4
Besides FRA itself, LH’s STL-FRA flight primarily connects to other destinations in Europe, with 83.9% of traffic on the route being bound for Europe.
Conclusion
Lufthansa’s STL-FRA is a testament to airline incentives working exactly as they were intended. The $5.7 million in incentives was no small amount, but not only has the route been a solid and stable performer, as of June 2026, the route will run five times weekly. This not only gives the region assurance that it can support a flight to Europe, other airlines may also take note someday.