MSP Airport / Metropolitan Airports Commission

[Suburban Outcast]

I think O'Hare has nonstop flights to India, I think in Delhi and maybe another city. Maybe they could use Frankfurt as a stopover.
To make us a more efficent gateway I would probably have this:
European Markets:
London-Heathrow (Delta year-round, maybe British Airways (though probably not))
Paris-CDG (Delta year-round, Air France summer seasonal seems fine)
Amsterdam-Schiphol (Delta year-round, maybe split the the flights 50/50 between actual KLM)
Frankfurt (Delta year-round or maybe Lufthansa)
Reykjavik (Icelandair, seasonal)
Rome, Oslo, Stockholm (maybe a seasonal flight with Delta or SAS if there is demand in any of these cities, otherwise O'Hare or JFK can be used as a stopover)
Asian Market:
Tokyo-Narita (probably good as it is, Delta year-round, doubt ANA would want this route)
Seoul-Incheon (Korean Air year-round)
Chinese city (probably either Beijing-Capital or Shanghai-Pudong would be a good Delta year-round trip, both could work if there is the demand for it, Hong Kong seems unlikely)
Every other major Asian city can probably be accessed with a short stopover with the airports listed above.
Canadian Market:
Vancouver (Delta Connection year-round, Delta seasonal)
Calgary (Delta Connection year-round and Delta seasonal, Westjet maybe could work in the future)
Edmonton (Delta Connection, maybe Westjet)
Saskatoon and Regina (good enough with Delta connection)
Winnipeg (Delta Connection year-round, maybe a Air Canada or WestJet flight)
Toronto-Pearson (Air Canada jazz, maybe Westjet or regular Air Canada)
Montreal-Trudeau (not too popular of route, so fine as it is with Delta Connection)
Ottawa and Quebec City probably can be accessed via Toronto and Montreal
Other International Markets:
Mexico City (Aeromexico or Delta year-round or seasonal would be nice)
All the vacation spots (probably fine with the Delta or Sun Country flights as is)
South American cities could be accessed via Mexico City or major Southeast US Airports
African cities could be accessed via the European nonstops or JFK or Washington-Dulles

This probably isn't perfect though, I am not an expert on this. These are just some ideas that popped up in my mind for improving the international gateway through MSP. Sorry for the long post as well.

[stp1980]

If you go North long enough from MSP you will end up (near) Delhi, India. Wonder if there is any advantage to that in terms of airport location?

[twinkess]

First Air France flight to MSP of the summer season in the air. I believe this is the first time MSP has seen regularly scheduled service on an A340.

Estimated arrival 3:45ish
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AFR6 ... /LFPG/KMSP

[talindsay]

Is Cocina del Barrio in Humphrey actually open now? My family will be in Humphrey at dinner time waiting for a flight on Friday, and it looks like the best choice.

[Tyler]

Looks like: http://mymspconnect.com/news/201303/coc ... o-now-open

[mattaudio]

Also a Subway and Caribou IIRC. Nice to have more options in T2 besides that expensive grab and go place or the bar.

[Didier]

Unbeknownst to me, my flight home from Europe (via Paris) yesterday was Air France. Full Air France plane, staff and everything. My earlier flight from Stockholm to Paris was also Air France.

The planes generally seemed a little older than Delta's, but the service was pretty good. The terminal we left from at Charles de Gaulle was also maybe the nicest one I've been to, with very modern architecture and shopping choices along the lines of Gucci, Hermes, Rolex, Bulgari, etc.

[emcee squared]

That terminal at CDG, I forget which one, is beautiful. Much better than the scary brutalist architecture that plagues other parts of the airport, especially around subway station. They had super-comfy chairs and video games, I recall.

[Didier]

It was an oasis in what otherwise seemed like a hot mess of an airport. You had to cram onto a bus to get there, but once you did it was like MSP Terminal G on steroids.

Not sure if the Delta MSP-Paris flights go through the same terminal, though? It looked like all Air France when I was there.

[emcee squared]

I flew Delta CDG-ATL out of that terminal. Was a heckuva journey: Dubai-Paris-Atlanta.

[beykite]

@Didier: Was it pretty full? I've heard they have been very successful and are considering adding more flights next year/increasing the number of days they offer flights.

[Didier]

For what it's worth, my Delta flight from MSP to Amsterdam last Wednesday was completely full but Paris home this Wednesday had a few open seats. I don't know if that's meaningful, though. From what I could gather, most people on the Paris flight were connecting to other places.

The Paris flight definitely felt more touristy, which makes sense because a lot of Americans probably default to Paris or London when going to Europe for the first/only time, whereas most people going to Amsterdam likely connect to somewhere else, be it for business or a more "exotic" destination. Well, I guess I'm not necessarily saying there were fewer tourists going to Amsterdam, but just that there were fewer American tourists wearing velour tracksuits etc.

[min-chi-cbus]

It was an oasis in what otherwise seemed like a hot mess of an airport. You had to cram onto a bus to get there, but once you did it was like MSP Terminal G on steroids.

Not sure if the Delta MSP-Paris flights go through the same terminal, though? It looked like all Air France when I was there.

Do you mean Concourse G? I was only aware of two Terminals as MSP: Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 (formerly Lindberg and Humphrey, respectively).

[Didier]

Yes, Concourse G in Terminal 1. I mixed up my airport terminology.

[matt91486]

Speaking of international flights, we're getting a new Costa Rica one:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... #ID5774062

[beykite]

Anyone know what happened to mspspotters.net? It hasn't been updated for quiet some time. It'd be nice to have a site like that with maybe a forum or something if enough people are interested.

[matt91486]

Not sure; I e-mailed them about a year ago to tell them their RSS feed was broken and never got a reply/the RSS fixed.

[Didier]

Any chance we might be seeing Virgin Atlantic at MSP anytime soon?

I just got an email from Delta including:

The next time London calls, you're in for an exciting experience.

Starting July 3rd, enjoy the best U.S. to U.K. travel experience through our new partnership with Virgin Atlantic. Take advantage of more flight choices, premium onboard amenities and added loyalty perks, including:

More Options to London
• An expanded network, featuring nonstop service to the United Kingdom

[mattaudio]

Unless it's Virgin Atlantic metal replacing the DL 767-400, no. My guess is they might start other markets like Seattle or possibly Salt Lake City to London.

The Delta announcement just refers to the expanded options due to the joint venture, such as Dulles, Orlando, Miami, Las Vegas, and Chicago which can be ticketed as DL service to LHR.

[talindsay]

It was an oasis in what otherwise seemed like a hot mess of an airport. You had to cram onto a bus to get there, but once you did it was like MSP Terminal G on steroids.

Not sure if the Delta MSP-Paris flights go through the same terminal, though? It looked like all Air France when I was there.

You're talking about CDG's terminal 2; don't fall for the packing onto a bus thing though, the bus is completely unnecessary unless you're in a wheelchair. The last stop on the RER B to terminal 2 connects directly into the terminal, but the signs tell you to get on the bus to get to the various parts of the very dispersed terminal. The truth is that there are moving walkways all over the terminal, and you can get to every part of it without getting on a bus, and the longest walk from the RER B station to the farthest part of terminal 2 is still less than a half mile, I'm pretty sure.

In this image you can see that from the RER/TGV station you can get everywhere but 2G on foot (I guess I've never flown into or out of 2G):


This time we flew out of terminal 1 which is the "awful brutalist" part you're referring to, I think - the 1960s space-age part. Personally I love it and certainly wouldn't compare its architecture to brutalism - it's the fun, creative 1960s architecture that uses glass tubes (a la Futurama) to move passengers through a huge open central section to their various gates. It's really awesome. It's also now connected directly to the *other* CDG RER B station via a small peoplemover tram similar to the one at MSP; this used to be a place where you really had to use a bus, but I haven't flown out of terminal 1 in almost a decade, so I don't know how long the peoplemover has been there - less than 8 years, at least.

I've never flown into or out of terminal 3, but I think it's from the Mitterand era so it might be as ugly/interesting (depending on your taste) as the BNF or the Grande Arche de la Defense, I don't know.

To connect this back to MSP though, flying in and out international through Humphrey (terminal 2) is really awesome - very short lines, quick and efficient. Icelandair's planes (757-200 and 757-300) are small and a bit uncomfortable compared to Delta's A330s and Air France's A340s, but the overall ease of getting into and out of Terminal 2 makes it worth a good bit of sacrifice elsewhere.