Success Quote by Gerard Arpey

A corporate love letter to a city, written in the language of route maps and market share. Gerard Arpey isn’t trying to inspire St. Louis so much as reassure it - and, just as importantly, reassure investors and regulators - that the airline’s presence isn’t a fleeting post-merger whim. The first clause (“I definitely see us”) is a soft pledge: personal conviction standing in for a binding commitment. It signals stability without promising anything enforceable.

The numbers do the real work. “95 percent” is meant to feel like inevitability, a near-monopoly of relevance. It reframes dominance as service: we already take you where you want to go, so of course we “belong” here. That’s a classic corporate move, turning concentration into convenience, control into care. “Markets St. Louis travelers visit the most” also subtly narrows the argument to the profitable core; it implies that the airline’s definition of civic partnership is identical to the city’s highest-yield demand.

Then comes the quiet assertion of leverage: “adding capacity in some of the most important markets.” Capacity sounds neutral, even generous, but it’s also a negotiating tool - the ability to expand or withhold flights, jobs, gates, and attention. In the background is a familiar American airline story: hub competition, consolidation anxieties, and a city’s fear of being downsized on a spreadsheet. Arpey’s intent is to preempt that fear with a controlled optimism, offering St. Louis a future as long as it aligns with the airline’s strategic definition of “important.”