MSP Airport / Metropolitan Airports Commission

[mattaudio]

Which is also strange given that United is the only carrier other than Delta to have a club. It went away for a few years, but they brought it back within the last 2-3 years.

[Wedgeguy]

Very surprised to hear that United is possibly using gates near the end of B concourse of the terminal, which is regional jets. Thought that was all Delta gates. Or does C and D have gates that would fit regional jets?

"edit": Looks like the C concourse south of the great concourse connector bridge would be gates for regional jets. Also a possibility of 3 regional jet gates at the north end of the D concourse. Don't fly United to know how their gates are laid out.

[SteveXC500]

I suppose it depends what statistics are being used to determine airline rank at MSP. If a percentage of passengers is used, according to MSP Airport's statistics page, as of July 2015, Delta (and its regional partners) has flown about 73% of the passengers in 2015. Sun Country is at just over 6%. A list of carriers taken from the statistics at MSP is below. American and US are still reported separately, but if added, they would be #2. Again, this is just a percentage of passengers flown.

1. Delta 72.88%
2. Sun Country 6.12%
3. Southwest 5.25%
4. United 4.14%
5. American 3.26%
6. US Airways 3.22%
7. Spirit 2.85%
8. Frontier 1.17%

[Wedgeguy]

Very surprised to hear that United is possibly using gates near the end of B concourse of the terminal, which is regional jets. Thought that was all Delta gates. Or does C and D have gates that would fit regional jets?

"edit": Looks like the C concourse south of the great concourse connector bridge would be gates for regional jets. Also a possibility of 3 regional jet gates at the north end of the D concourse. Don't fly United to know how their gates are laid out.

Looks like United only flies out of the E concourse. So not sure if there are regional sized gate as part of the concourse. United shares the E concourse with about a half a dozen airlines, so not sure how they get regional jet to the E concourse.

[mattaudio]

UA and AA park regionals on E - it's no big deal for a smaller plane to get into a bigger gate assuming they paint the stop lines.

US (now part of AA) has long parked rest overnight (RON) aircraft at certain C or D gates, and will operate a late night arrival and morning departure from those gates. I don't think this is a sublease from Delta... IIRC, they actually have lease rights going back to before NW got nearly all of the non-E gates in T1. I'm not aware of United operating out of non-E gates. While Frontier and now Spirit fly out of 1-E, I can't imagine UA or AA moving regional operations to a different concourse to accommodate it.

[exiled_antipodean]

UA flights sometimes park on D or low-number C gates on late night arrivals and all the regular UA gates are full. I think they are then moved back over to E concourse for their departure the next morning.

UA has more corporate presence in the MSP market than one might suspect. They picked up some business around the time of the NW/DL merger. For example, that's when they introduced the MSP-SFO & vv. flights that connect to UA's Asia flights.

[SteveXC500]

I believe we should be seeing the 2035 LTCP out for public comment soon. I had heard conversation they might dismantle some B gates to accommodate larger regional aircraft. But, I agree, not sure why UA would have any gates on B at any point.

From MAC - meeting today 9/21
Public Comment Period Advertisement 09/22/2015 – 10/02/2015
45-Day Public Comment Period & Public Information Meetings 10/05/2015 – 11/18/2015
Finalize LTCP Narrative Report/Respond to Comments 11/19/2015 – 12/18/2015
PD&E – Request to Submit Final Draft LTCP to Metropolitan Council 01/04/2016
Full Commission Approval to Submit to Met Council 01/21/2016

[Wedgeguy]

Sun Country and their pilots have reached a tentative agreement. Still think that the pilots have to vote on it. This should make MAC feel a little better. Will help keep the money invested in terminal 2 worth the while. Help Minnesota traveler have a choice of airlines and competition.

[FISHMANPET]

Sun Country and their pilots have reached a tentative agreement. Still think that the pilots have to vote on it. This should make MAC feel a little better. Will help keep the money invested in terminal 2 worth the while. Help Minnesota traveler have a choice of airlines and competition.

This was already posted, 5 days ago, with a link to an actual news article.

[mattaudio]

OMG OMG new service to Rome starting next may!

DL90 MSP-FCO
5:25pm-10:20am

DL91 FCO-MSP
12:05pm-4:00pm

[MSPtoMKE]

Very nice! according to airliners.net, it will be summer seasonal, but still exciting. Looks like a 767-300ER, which we don't see a lot of currently.

[Chauncey87]

The B747 is something we don't see pretty much at all. The B767 Delta uses on all international flights save for Tokyo that use a B777. Condor and now Iceland Air also use the B767, I just saw from Wiki the flights to Rome are from Delta. Start date is May 27 2016

[mattaudio]

The A330-200/300 flies more international service at MSP than the B767. I know they use the 767-400 for LHR, but isn't AMS (3x daily) and CDG operated by a mix of A332s and A333s?

[Mcgizz]

The A330-200/300 flies more international service at MSP than the B767. I know they use the 767-400 for LHR, but isn't AMS (3x daily) and CDG operated by a mix of A332s and A333s?

Yes.

[MSPtoMKE]

Delta uses its domestic-configured 767-300 (non -ER, no winglets) on a number of flights to major US destinations, especially in the summer. However, I don't believe the 767-300ER is regularly used to MSP at all by Delta currently as others have said. Paris was a 767-300ER after the merger, but has since been upgaged to an A330. Actually, I don't believe MSP regularly sees any of the smaller A330-200s, either, only A330-300s. I am not sure if any of the routes drop down to 767 or A332 in the winter, though.

This past summer the less-than-daily Condor flight was the only 767-300ER we saw, next summer it will be an average of about 2 per day between Delta, Condor, and Icelandair.

This will be the second-longest route flown from MSP, after Tokyo. Here all the trans-oceanic destinations:
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=MSP-FCO%2C ... ts&RS=best

[nate]

My wife and I flew to Rome via Paris last year. FCO airport seems sleepy compared to LHR, AMS, or CDG - our incoming flight had us disembark onto the tarmac and take a bus to the terminal - but it offers most of the same connections to Europe,Africa, and Asia as the big gateway airports. I could see this being a very useful service in peak season when our other European flights are pretty ful.

[maxbaby]

A little extra info.
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... -rome.html

[maxbaby]

MSP Airport may test car-sharing program.
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... pilot.html

[mattaudio]

They need a program like the one that was shot down at SFO where origin travelers can rent out their cars to destination travelers. Instead of having parking ramps to store cars for people flying out of MSP, and parking ramps to store rental cars for people flying into MSP, make better use of the cars.

(But parking fees and car rental surcharges are a cash cow for the airport.)

[twinkess]

Ugh, Terminal 2 though... WHY!?!?


Edit: Yes I see that it is near the LRT, but that still means timing a connection to the train.