St. Louis is one big step closer to securing a potentially lucrative trade partnership with China.
The Midwest-China Hub Commission announced today that China Eastern Airlines has agreed to open up talks with Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
The step signals that the plan has moved out of the plausibility phase and into a logistical phase.
Mike Jones is the Chair of the Hub Commission:
"This is the critical step, I mean, you still have to negotiate the deal, ok but we are announcing what we didn't have before. Which is an active airline partner to begin negotiating the deal and that's what we've been working on for the last couple years."
Jones says if all goes well, Chinese planes could be landing at Lambert by this summer.
