The Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is one of the largest and busiest airports in the United States. Nestled among two major metropolitan cities and surrounding suburbs, the airport averages about 500,000 landings and takeoffs and serves nearly 35 million passengers each year.
The airport is managed and run by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), a public corporation established in 1943 by the Minnesota legislature.
“Being an airport commission has divorced us from a lot of the politics that many airports face if they’re city or county operated,” said Patrick Hogan, public affairs and marketing director for the MAC.
Today, the airport sits on about 3,400 acres located nearly 23 miles from downtown Minneapolis and includes two major terminals. Terminal 1 (the Lindbergh Terminal) is the larger of the two, with 2.8 million square feet and 114 gates. Terminal 2 (Humphrey) has about 531,700 square feet and 1- gate. Passengers can travel between the two terminals using the city’s light-rail transit system.
MSP was originally an automobile speedway that held its first race in 1915. The speedway was unsuccessful and was later sold to an aeronautics club, which constructed the first wooden hangar on the property in 1920 to accommodate airmail service. The area became known as Wold-Chamberlain Field, named after two local pilots who died in combat during World War I. During this time, the airport also became the home of Northwest Airlines, which carried its first paying passenger in 1927.
Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Minneapolis Park Board purchased World-Chamberlain Field and renamed it the Minneapolis Municipal Airport. During this time, the airport continued to grow with the establishment of military units on the property, and Northwest Airways created the nation’s first air-rail link connecting Minneapolis and Chicago.
The Minneapolis Municipal Airport nearly doubled in size through the 1940s, extending runways and expanding military reserve units. In 1942, Minneapolis and St. Pul combined air operations at the World-Chamberlain site and began plans to construct a larger airport. Then, in 1947, the airport became international, offering service to Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Manila.
In 1958, construction began on a 600,000-square-foot terminal, which eventually became Terminal 1. It opened in 1962 with 24 aircraft gates and two concourses. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the airport underwent further expansion with new concourses, more parking spaces, and new hangars.
In 1996, the MAC commissioned the “Building a Better Airport” program, a $3.2 billion initiative that resulted in 30 new regional gates, 12 new jet gates, the light-rail transport system, and underground trams.
“Virtually every part of the airport was updated because of the…program,” Hogan said.
The airport, already a major generator of jobs and economic revenue in the Midwest, plans to spend nearly $2.5 billion to further expand services. Airport officials hope to serve more than 50 million passengers by 2030 and add 202 to 30 new airport gates and 18,000 new parking spaces.
“The expansion will be demand-driven,” Hogan said. “We’ll do it in stages and only as demand warrants.”
