Retiring Lambert Director Looks Back on 16 Years on the Job
Date Posted: August 18, 2026
Posted In: Discussion, People,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: After working more than 16 years to rebuild St. Louis Lambert International Airport’s passenger and flight counts, Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge retired on Friday.
Hamm-Niebruegge, now 66, was hired in 2010 as director. The airport was still struggling after American Airlines scaled back operations for years, ending Lambert’s status as a hub for the airline.
She had decades of experience in the industry and ran hub operations at Lambert for both Trans World Airlines and American Airlines, into which TWA merged.
Under Hamm-Niebruegge, annual passenger counts rebounded to 15.9 million by 2024, the highest since the early 2000s.
She also points to two other key accomplishments — one early in her tenure and one more recent.
She cited the airport’s recovery after the 2011 tornado that swept through north St. Louis County, causing millions of dollars in damage to the roof, windows and interior of the airport’s C concourse.
She said the speed of the repair work, which took about a year, was “due to all the support we got from the community overall.”
She said she believed the relationships she built with the business community and others after taking over played an important role.
More recently, she pointed to the decisions of Lufthansa in 2022 and British Airways earlier this year to begin nonstop flights to Frankfurt and London, respectively. The last previous nonstop European connection by a major carrier had ended in 2003.
“Getting the international service back … was huge to this community because it had been an ask for so long, to really put us back on the map,” Hamm-Niebruegge said.
Bob Clark, executive chairman of construction giant Clayco, said Hamm-Niebruegge had one of the toughest assignments in St. Louis, inheriting an airport trying to find its footing after losing hub status.