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Looking for lower airfares from MSP? Check out the options from the Humphrey Terminal
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The Hubert H. Humphrey Terminal at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (www.mspairport.com) was long regarded as the “charter terminal”, as the old and new HHH facilities on 34th Avenue have both been the home to Sun Country Airlines and what were the “other” airlines who weren’t permitted to utilize the main terminal for many years. With Sun Country switching from charter to scheduled service back in 1999 and the demise last year of Champion Airlines, the Humphrey Terminal has evolved into a busy, modern center for low-fare service from the Twin Cities to destinations nationwide.
Sun Country (www.suncountry.com) offers a limited schedule to a variety of east coast and west coast cities, as well as Dallas/Ft. Worth, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Branson (seasonal), Florida and Mexico. They adjust their schedule between the warm and cold weather months in order to fly to the destinations that Minnesotans tend to frequent. Being the sole remaining “home town airline”, Sun Country continues to fill the niche of providing service for the locals.
When AirTran moved to the Humphrey Terminal in mid-2006, it brought new low-fare service to more destinations via their hub in Atlanta, and to their headquarters city of Orlando. AirTran was the second true national low-fare carrier to serve MSP and has provided mostly eastern U.S. service. The arrival of Southwest Airlines in March of this year has dramatically changed the competitive landscape from the Twin Cities. Frontier Airlines who operates out of the main (Lindbergh) terminal has been offering low-fare service to the West from the Twin Cities since 1995. Now, with Southwest firmly entrenched here in Minnesota, the Upper Midwest has a variety of low-fare options other than Delta, Northwest, and the other legacy carriers.
AirTran (www.airtran.com) currently operates 10 daily non-stops from MSP, including three to their growing Milwaukee hub, six to their largest hub in Atlanta and one to Orlando. Via Milwaukee they offer excellent connections to Boston, New York’s La Guardia Airport as well as Baltimore/Washington. The Atlanta hub serves cities throughout the Southeast including the Florida cities of Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers and Tampa.
Southwest Airlines (www.southwest.com), courted by MAC (the Metropolitan Airports Commission who operates MSP) for many years, finally saw a great opportunity when Delta purchased Northwest Airlines. The Twin Cities has been starved of low-fare service to major markets for many years, and it was obvious that Delta was unlikely to be the carrier to lower fares in the market. Southwest jumped into the Twin Cities market in March of 2009 with eight daily flights to Chicago-Midway. Connections to many popular cities beyond Chicago were instantly available. In late May they further expanded their route system with three daily non-stops between the Twin Cities and Denver. This opens the West dramatically with both Southwest and Frontier (www.frontierairlines.com) Airlines offering a less-restrictive, lower-fare alternative to Delta/Northwest and United Airlines, which also has a major hub in Denver.
And don’t forget that the Humphrey Terminal is also home to low-fare European air service with Icelandair (www.icelandair.com). With convenient Boeing 757 daily (seasonal) non-stop flights to Reykjavik, Iceland and connections throughout Europe, Icelandair is a superb way to explore the Continent. Kevlavik International Airport is a simple transit point, with easy connections to Berlin, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Milan, Munich, Oslo and Stockholm.
Finally, after way too many years of waiting, the Twin Cities has access to lower-fares, f
