Narrative:

The first officer (first officer) and I were scheduled to ferry aircraft X back to ZZZ. We had received our release from dispatch and started getting the aircraft ready. We received pre departure clearance (pre-departure clearance) via ACARS and we both verified it to our paperwork and to the FMS. Once we were ready for pushback we called metering and received our push clearance. After we pushed back we then received taxi clearance from ground to taxi to 29 via C; cross runway 6; then T to 29. Once we reached 29 and finished the 'before take off' check we told tower that we were ready for departure. Stl tower cleared us 'RNAV to hagee; cleared for takeoff 29'. Once airborne we contacted departure. When we made contact with departure the controller said that he had no information on our flight. He stated that it is becoming a common occurrence out of stl. He told us that we would basically have to file with him in the air. This caused a lot of confusion for the controller. This confusion lasted until we contacted the center controller and that's when they got it figured out and got us on our flight plan. The threat here was that stl tower; for some reason; did not pass along our flight info to departure and we were airborne without any flight plan information which caused ATC a lot of confusion and time to figure out a plan for us. This had the potential to be a bigger problem if ATC was busy. The first officer and I both verified the pre departure clearance with the paperwork and what we had programmed into the FMS. We both understood our pushback; taxi and takeoff clearances. This occurrence happened because somehow there was no communication with stl tower and the rest of ATC. How did we get a pre departure clearance; taxi and takeoff clearance if ATC didn't have our flight plan information?

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Regional Captain reported clearance information was not processed from STL tower to the NAS (National Airspace System) resulting in crew filing while airborne.

Narrative: The FO (First Officer) and I were scheduled to ferry Aircraft X back to ZZZ. We had received our release from dispatch and started getting the aircraft ready. We received PDC (Pre-Departure Clearance) via ACARS and we both verified it to our paperwork and to the FMS. Once we were ready for pushback we called metering and received our push clearance. After we pushed back we then received taxi clearance from ground to taxi to 29 via C; cross Runway 6; then T to 29. Once we reached 29 and finished the 'Before Take Off' check we told tower that we were ready for departure. STL tower cleared us 'RNAV to HAGEE; cleared for takeoff 29'. Once airborne we contacted departure. When we made contact with departure the controller said that he had no information on our flight. He stated that it is becoming a common occurrence out of STL. He told us that we would basically have to file with him in the air. This caused a lot of confusion for the controller. This confusion lasted until we contacted the center controller and that's when they got it figured out and got us on our flight plan. The threat here was that STL tower; for some reason; did not pass along our flight info to departure and we were airborne without any flight plan information which caused ATC a lot of confusion and time to figure out a plan for us. This had the potential to be a bigger problem if ATC was busy. The FO and I both verified the PDC with the paperwork and what we had programmed into the FMS. We both understood our pushback; taxi and takeoff clearances. This occurrence happened because somehow there was no communication with STL tower and the rest of ATC. How did we get a PDC; taxi and takeoff clearance if ATC didn't have our flight plan information?

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.