Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
(MSP) is a joint civil-military public international airport that serves the twin cities within Minnesota of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. While the airport is less commonly known as Wold-Chamberlain Field, the airport is a busy hub for SkyTeam
‘s Delta Air Lines.

The airport, located just 10 miles from downtown Minneapolis
and Saint Paul, is the primary airport for the twin cities, hosts commercial flights to most major American airports, and serves a handful of international routes. MSP is the busiest airport in the upper Midwest, and the airport has been in constant operation for 104 years.

Hub for Delta Air Lines and Sun Country Airlines

While the airport serves as a gateway for most major US carriers, it also serves as a hub for both Delta Air Lines and Minnesotian Sun Country Airlines. Sun Country is a leisure-focused carrier that ramps up its operations in the winter months, providing easy vacation packages and flights to sun-soaked destinations.

Delta, on the other hand, provides a robust network of year-round services to both international and domestic destinations, however add’s multiple seasonal routes throughout various times of the year, to both long-haul and short-haul destinations.

The airport itself is spread over two terminals, with 131 accessible gates:

  • Terminal 1 (Lindbergh)

    • 117 gates across seven concourses (A-G)
  • Terminal 2 (Humphrey)

    • 14 gates across one concourse (H)

These two terminals are one mile apart and accessible from separate exits from Minnesota State Highway 5. Terminals are not currently connected within the airport facilities, meaning that arriving at the wrong one can add frustration to your travel arrangements.

As Simple Flying analyzed in January this year, Minneapolis was the second busiest Delta hub, with an average of 229,000 daily seats between January and February. This equates to around 540 daily arrivals or departures. For this article, we based the October statistics on data retrieved from the online aviation analytics company Cirium. Here are the top six leading international routes from MSP:

1

Amsterdam (AMS)

88 flights

ams-msp

Delta’s most popular route is to another SkyTeam hub, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
, to which it has a deep partnership with Dutch flag carrier KLM
. The dutch carrier also serves the route, but are not included in these statistics. The distance between AMS and MSP, is 4,166 miles as the crow flies, and Delta’s services are served with a Airbus A330-300 aircraft.

Available seats (month)

24,297 (MSP-AMS) / 24,580 (AMS-MSP)

Seats per departure

279.3

Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

101,221,302 (MSP-AMS) / 102,400,280 (AMS/MSP)

With up to three flights a day, in addition to KLM’s services, the route between Amsterdam and Minneapolis is the busiest intercontinental route at the Midwest airport. For October, due to how the schedule will fall, the figures differ (as above), for outbound and inbound services. This October, there will be 87 flights from Minneapolis to Amsterdam and 88 flights on the return.

Related

Do You Agree That Flying Blue (Air France-KLM) Is The Best Airline Loyalty Program In The World?

Today, Point.me, a travel reward search platform, has released its rankings of global airline loyalty programs. In all, 62 programs were ranked, taking into account things like ease of earning, redemption rates, partner airline availability and ease of booking. 

Point.me ranked Air France-KLM’s joint program, Flying Blue, as its top pick in the world. Coming in second is Air Canada’s Aeroplan, while Mileage Plus from United Airlines came in third.

On a 100-point scale, Flying Blue bested its closest competitor by more than 15 points, with a score of 93.06. Point.me cited the program’s “ease of earning points through its extensive partnerships and great redemption values” as its core strengths. Here’s the full list, in case you haven’t seen our coverage on it yet:

1. Flying Blue (Air France and KLM): 93.06

2. Air Canada Aeroplan: 77.43

3. United MileagePlus: 72.22

4. British Airways Executive Club: 69.10 (tie)

4. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 69.10 (tie)

6. American Airlines AAdv

2

Seoul Incheon (ICN)

31 flights

icn-msp

Delta’s daily Airbus A350-900 service to Seoul Incheon International Airport
(ICN) links the Midwest to South Korea. The route, which covers a distance of 6,248 miles as the crow flies, sees no direct competition and no doubt feeds into the Korean Air
network, another SkyTeam member.

Available seats (month)

9,486

Seats per departure

306

Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

59,268,528

3

Tokyo-Haneda (HND)

31 flights

hnd-msp

Delta serves the Japanese gateway of Tokyo Haneda Airport
and provides a daily service between the two cities. Once again, the carrier controls the route, which is just 5,982 miles as the crow flies and the Airbus A330-900
operates Delta’s flight.

Available seats (month)

8,711

Seats per departure

281

Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

52,109,202

4

Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)

31 flights

cdg-msp

Delta and SkyTeam partner Air France
(seasonal), which provides direct links from Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport
(CDG), brings French flair to the Midwest. Delta maintains the connection year-round and operates daily with the Airbus A330-900. The route is 4,222 miles from gate to gate.

Available seats (month)

8,731

Seats per departure

281.6

Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

36,862,282

Last summer, Air France decided to pause its seasonal service to Minneapolis. However, this year, it has come back and operated until September 29. Read more about it below:

5

London Heathrow (LHR)

31 flights

lhr-msp

Delta connects London Heathrow Airport
with MSP with a daily service and holds a monopoly on this route. The flight, operated by the airline’s Airbus A330-300 aircraft, covers 4,015 miles from start to finish and it’s usual flight time is around seven hours.

Available seats (month)

7,498

Seats per departure

241.9

Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

30,104,470

6

Dublin (DUB)

26 flights

msp-dub

Those traveling to the Emerald Isle can jump onboard Delta’s direct service to Dublin Airport
. While in the summer months, Delta’s operation faces direct competition from Irish carrier – Aer Lingus, but Delta remains unphased and continues year-round. The route, which is 3,736 miles as the crow flies, is the shortest long-haul international route in this analysis, and Delta deploys its Boeing 767-300 workhorse to/from Dublin.

Available seats (month)

5,616

Seats per departure

216

Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

20,981,376

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