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Statistics 2004 Passengers 36,713,173 Traffic Movements 541,093

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in the five-state upper Midwestern region of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. MSP is the sixteenth busiest airport in the world as measured by daily passenger traffic. It straddles the southern border of the cities of Saint Paul, Minnesota and Minneapolis, Minnesota, but is mostly located in the Census-designated place of Fort Snelling, Minnesota. The terminal exits of the airport are minutes away from the Mall of America; careful flight pattern planning ensures that aircraft never fly over the mall at low altitude. It is a major hub for Northwest Airlines, Champion Air, Sun Country Airlines, and Northwest's Airlink partners Mesaba Airlines and Pinnacle Airlines, all of which except Pinnacle are headquartered nearby. Northwest accounts for more than 70% of the airport's passenger traffic. It is operated by the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which also handles operation of six smaller airports in the region.

The airport first came into being when several local groups came together to take control of a former speedway, giving the airport its original name, Speedway Field. Soon after, in 1921, the airport was renamed Wold-Chamberlain Field for the World War I pilots Ernest Groves Wold and Cyrus Foss Chamberlain. In 1944, the site was renamed to Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airport/Wold-Chamberlain Field, with "International" replacing "Metropolitan" four years later. Today, it is very rare to see the Wold-Chamberlain portion of the name used anywhere.

Description

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport has two terminals, both of which are named for famous Minnesotans; the Lindbergh Terminal (named for aviator Charles Lindbergh) and the much smaller Humphrey Terminal (named for former US Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey). Lindbergh Terminal officially has seven concourses, lettered A-G, with the Humphrey terminal labeled as Concourse H. However, this may change in the future, since future expansion plans call for the adding of a Concourse H to the Lindbergh Terminal.

Like many other airports, MSP interconnects with several other forms of transportation. Several large parking ramps are available for cars. Most other connections are made at the Hub Building and adjacent Transit Center, which has city and shuttle bus, taxi, light-rail and rental car service. Two trams (people movers) are at the airport. One carries passengers from the main section of Lindbergh Terminal to the Hub Building, and another runs along the long Concourse C in that terminal.

The airport is near Fort Snelling, the site of one of the earliest white settlements in the area. Both the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers flow nearby. Minnesota State Highway 5 provides the closest entrance to the Lindbergh Terminal, just a short distance from Interstate 494. The Humphrey Terminal is accessed via the 34th Avenue exit from I-494, which runs past Fort Snelling National Cemetery. Northwest Airlines has hangars arranged along I-494 and 34th Avenue, so it's possible to see airliners undergoing maintenance while driving past.

The Hiawatha Line light-rail project has stops at both the Hub Building (Lindbergh Station) and Humphrey Terminal (Humphrey Station). It connects the airport with downtown Minneapolis as well as with the Mall of America in nearby Bloomington, and operates as a shuttle service between the two airport terminals. Travelers can use the rail line to go between the two sites at all times of day—it is the only part of the line that operates continuously through the night (the rest shuts down for about four hours early in the morning). Passengers going between the two terminals may ride free of charge, but those riding beyond the airport grounds must pay a standard fare. Two parallel tunnels for the line run roughly 70 feet (20 meters) below the airport, and at 1.7 miles (2.7 km) in length are the longest tunnels on the route. The Lindbergh Terminal station is the only one underground on the line, as the rails return to the surface near Humphrey Terminal. Due to current concerns about terrorism, a great deal of effort went into ensuring that the tunnels are highly blast-resistant. The underground portion was the costliest section of the rail project.

Northwest Airlines has expanded operations at the airport over the years. In the past, Northwest and others have proposed moving out of MSP airport and expanding one of the regional airports farther out in the Twin Cities metro area to handle large jets and international traffic. Minneapolis and other neighboring cities were concerned that such a move would have a negative economic impact, so an arrangement was made where the Metropolitan Airports Commission would outfit many homes in the vicinity of the airport with sound insulation and air conditioning so that indoor noise could be reduced. A citizen group named ROAR (Residents Opposed to Airport Racket) was created in 1998 and helped push the MAC to make these concessions. Later, in 2004, the MAC voted to reduce funding for the soundproofing projects, stating in part that the economic climate had turned in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who had been a founding member of ROAR, promised that the city would challenge the funding changes.

The 1970 disaster film Airport was partially filmed at MSP, filling in for a fictional Chicago airport. It was followed by several sequels and was a prototype for many disaster films that followed. The airport used colors as the method for naming different concourses for many years, a convention that was duplicated in the movie. Starting in 2000, MSP switched to lettered concourses, which has become standard practice at airports around the world.

MSP 2020 Vision

In 2004, Northwest Airlines proposed expanding the Lindbergh Terminal to accommodate growing flight operations in a plan now known as MSP 2020 Vision. The proposed expansion included moving all airlines other than Northwest and its Skyteam Alliance airline partners to the Humphrey Terminal. This reignited concerns about Northwest Airlines' control of the Minneapolis-St. Paul commercial air service market with some claiming that Northwest uses its market position to inflate airfares. While AirTran Airways voiced opposition to the plan, American Airlines and United Airlines remained neutral on the move since both had exclusive terminals at their own main hubs. In May 2005, the MAC approved the plan with the following conditions:

  • The Humphrey Terminal will be expanded to 22 gates, over double its current size
  • Another parking ramp will be constructed at Humphrey
  • Northwest and other SkyTeam airlines will have exclusive rights to the entire Lindbergh Terminal
  • Non-SkyTeam airlines will use the Humphrey Terminal
  • Concourse C will be converted into a regional jet terminal
  • A new Concourse H will be built on the site of the current NWA Building B

The move was planned to take place in 2007, but with the bankruptcy of Northwest and Mesaba, the expansion plan has been delayed by at least a year, and likely longer.

Lindbergh Terminal

Concourse A

Concourse B

Concourse C

  • Northwest Airlines (see below)
    • Northwest Airlink operated by Mesaba Airlines (Aberdeen, Aspen, Bemidji, Bozeman, Brainerd, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Des Moines, Devils Lake, Duluth, Fargo, Fort Dodge, Grand Forks, Hibbing, Houghton, Houston-Intercontinental, International Falls, Jamestown, Kalamazoo, La Crosse, Mason City, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Pierre, Pittsburgh, Rapid City, Rochester (MN), Rochester (NY), St. Cloud, St. Louis, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Thief River Falls, Waterloo, Watertown, Wausau)
    • Northwest Airlink operated by Pinnacle Airlines (Albany (NY), Appleton, Austin, Bismarck, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Charlotte, Chicago-O'Hare, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Cleveland, Columbus (OH), Dayton, Des Moines, Eau Claire, El Paso, Fargo, Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Greensboro, Harrisburg, Helena, Indianapolis, International Falls, Kalamazoo, Knoxville, La Crosse, Lincoln, Little Rock, Louisville, Madison, Manchester (NH), Memphis, Milwaukee, Moline, Norfolk, Northwest Arkansas, New York-JFK, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Regina, Richmond, Rochester (MN), Saskatoon, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, South Bend, Springfield (MO), St. Louis, Toronto, Traverse City, Tulsa, Washington-Dulles, Waterloo, Wausau, White Plains, Wichita, Winnipeg)
  • US Airways

Concourse D

  • Northwest Airlines (Acapulco (seasonal), Albuquerque, Amsterdam, Anchorage, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore/Washington, Billings, Bismarck, Boise, Boston, Bozeman, Buffalo, Calgary, Cancun, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Charlotte, Chicago-Midway, Chicago-O'Hare, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Columbus, Cozumel (seasonal), Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Duluth, Edmonton, Fairbanks (seasonal), Fargo, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Grand Rapids, Great Falls, Green Bay, Hartford/Springfield, Honolulu, Houston-Intercontinental, Indianapolis, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo (seasonal), Jacksonville, Kansas City, Lansing, Las Vegas, London-Gatwick (seasonal), Los Angeles, Manila, Mazatlan (seasonal), Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minot, Missoula, Montréal, Nashville, New Orleans, New York-JFK, New York-LaGuardia, Newark, Omaha, Ontario, Orlando, Palm Springs, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland (OR), Providence, Raleigh/Durham, Rapid City, Reno, Rochester (MN), St. Louis, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose (CA), San Jose del Cabo, Saskatoon, Seattle/Tacoma, Sioux Falls, Spokane, Syracuse, Tampa, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto, Vail/Eagle, Vancouver, Washington-Dulles, Washington-Reagan, Winnipeg)

Concourse E

Concourse F

Concourse G

Humphrey Terminal

Concourse H

Scheduled
  • AirTran Airways (Atlanta, Chicago-Midway, Orlando)
  • Midwest Airlines (Milwaukee)
  • Sun Country Airlines (Acapulco, Anchorage, Cancun, Cozumel, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Harlingen, Houston, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Las Vegas, Laughlin, Los Angeles, Manzanillo, Mazatlan, Miami, Montego Bay, New York-JFK, Orlando, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Puerto Vallarta, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, San Jose del Cabo, San Juan, Tampa, Washington-Dulles)
Charter

Runways

MSP Airport has four runways:
  • Runway 4/22 – 11,000 feet (3,354 m)
  • Runway 12R/30L – 10,000 ft (3,048 m)
  • Runway 12L/30R – 8,200 ft (2,499 m)
  • Runway 17/35 – 8,000 feet (2,438 m)

A number of buildings (including hangars) were demolished to make way for the runway protection zone of the new 17/35 landing strip, and plans for expansion at the Mall of America have been hampered by its construction. The new runway 17/35 opened in October, 2005. Aircraft using it overfly Interstate 494 and fly slightly east of the Mall of America.

External links

Airports in Minnesota | Buildings and Monuments Honoring Alpha Phi Alpha Men

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport | ミネアポリス・セントポール国際空港

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport".

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