Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has received a number of improvements in the last decade. More than $3.1 billion is dedicated to expanding the airport and runways in place of building a brand new airport. One of the key changes was a more universal alpha-numerical gate numbering system that helps more than 35 million passengers per year move around the terminals more easily.

Two terminals make up the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Humphrey Terminal (Terminal H) and Lindbergh Terminal (Terminal L) both offer covered parking, and many other amenities. Rail systems were launched to transfer passengers from the airport to the Mall of America, one of Minneapolis-St. Paul's largest attractions. This is a non-smoking airport, therefore passengers will not find any smoking area on the airport grounds.

Over sized vehicles are not allowed in any of the parking areas. Garage clearance is 7' at both Humphrey and Lindbergh terminals. The airport roads all have 11'8" clearances. Motorcycles and bicycles may not park on the airport parking ramps. Passengers are welcome to use personal check, cash, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, or Debit card to pay for their parking fees.

Long Term Parking - At Humphrey Terminal, all long term parking is in a covered lot connected to the terminal by an enclosed skyway on the garage's second level. Rates in this lot are $8 per hour ($6 with ePark®) or $14 per day ($12 with ePark®.)

Long term parking at Lindbergh Terminal offers secure, covered parking spaces. A series of well organized elevators, skyways, and free tram systems bring passengers to the correct area of the terminal. Using ePark® provides those using the long term parking terminal with a $2 discount per hour or day. ePark® is simple to use and saves time and hassle when exiting the garage. Rates in the long term garage are $8 per hour ($6 with ePark®) or $18 per day ($16 with ePark®).

Discount Airport Parking - ePark® is the airport's discount system. Every garage uses the ePark® system to save travelers a few dollars. It is simple to use the ePark® system. When driving into the garage, travelers need only swipe their debit or credit card and then take their parking ticket. When the time comes to leave the garage, travelers swipe their credit or debit card once more, the parking fee is tallied and charged automatically without any hassle. A $2 discount is taken from the normal rates for anyone who chooses to use ePark®.

Those picking up passengers will find it is cheapest to use short term parking found at both terminals. Short term parking is located underneath the baggage claim area on the tram level. Stays in this lot cannot be more than two hours. Rates are $5 for the first hour, $8 for the full two hours. Cars left overnight will be towed. An alternative is the most costly but convenient Valet Parking. Valet parking is only available at Lindbergh Terminal. The first hour costs $10 with additional hours costing $3. There is a maximum fee of $28 from May to October and $40 from November to April. The ePark® discount does not apply to valet parking.

Handicapped Parking - At both Humphrey Terminal and Lindbergh Terminal, handicapped vans no taller than 8' 2" can use the short-term parking ramps safely. These short-term parking ramps are very close to the terminal entrances making them highly suitable for those with limited mobility. The ramps to the long term garage has a clearance of 7', so most handicapped vans do not fit. Valet Parking can handle vehicles up to 7' tall, but they cannot handle vans with wheelchair lifts.

Airport Hotel Parking - Another nice option is to find a hotel that offers Park 'N' Fly packages. Certain hotels in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas allow travelers to leave their car parked safely in the hotel parking areas and then offer free shuttles to and from the airport. This is one of the least expensive ways to find affordable parking, while also enjoying the comfort of a night's rest before and/or after flying to/from another destination. Hotels that offer this service include: Crowne Plaza Hotel Bloomington, Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, La Quinta Inn, Le Bourget Aero Suites, Ramada Mall Of America, Staybridge Suites

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport MSP

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (IATA: MSP, ICAO: KMSP, FAA LID: MSP) is the largest and busiest airport in the five-state upper Midwestern region of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.

In terms of passengers, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport is the twelfth busiest airport in the United States (2006),[2] and twenty-sixth busiest airport in the world in 2007. Airlines out of Minneapolis/St. Paul International airport serve 131 nonstop markets from MSP, including 116 domestic and 14 international markets. Compared to other metropolitan areas in the United States, only Denver serves slightly more non-stop markets per capita.

The airport, including both passenger terminal buildings, is mostly located in the Census-designated place of Fort Snelling in unincorporated Hennepin County. Small sections of the airport are within the city limits of Minneapolis and Richfield. The airport is across the Mississippi River from St. Paul. 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 the largest 'origin and destination' (O&D) airport for Northwest Airlines, Northwest Airlink partners Compass Airlines, Mesaba Airlines, and Pinnacle Airlines, in terms of passengers carried and revenues [1] (all but Compass and Pinnacle having headquarters nearby), the airport is Northwest Airlines busiest hub overall. It also serves as the hub for Sun Country Airlines as well as ceased Champion Air. Northwest Airlines accounts for more than 80% 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 the former bankrupt Twin City Speedway race track, 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. In 1938 Howard Hughes briefly stopped at Wold-Chamberlain Field on his round the world flight.

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 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.

Aerial view of MSP International Airport.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 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 building a new airport on the fringes of 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. The color names still survive as the names for the Lindbergh Terminal parking ramp wings.

Aeromexico has been granted by the United States Department of Transportation to start non-stop Mexico City-Minneapolis service June 2008.[citation needed] The city of Minneapolis would like to give an incentives to Lufthansa to start Frankfurt, Germany-Minneapolis service non-stop. British Airways could also start service to Minneapolis from its London Heathrow or London Gatwick hub in 2008 or 2009.[citation needed] Northwest Airlines has considered starting non-stop Minneapolis-Shanghai service using new Boeing 787 aircraft in 2009.

MSP 2020 Vision

One of the trams at MSP pulling into a station.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 potentially longer. However, certain aspects of the plan have been implemented or are currently in progress, such as the moving of Midwest Airlines, AirTran Airways, and Icelandair to the Humphrey Terminal, and the construction of an additional parking ramp at the Humphrey Terminal.

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 runway 35 fly slightly east of the Mall of America, overfly Interstate 494, and land only seconds later. Due to noise concerns from South Minneapolis residents, runway 17 was originally designated for use in emergency situations only. However, between 13 August 2007 and 18 October 2007 it was used regularly due to construction on runway 12R/30L.