Minneapolis – St. Paul Airport Statistics (Operations and Passengers) Source: https://www.mspairport.com/about-msp/statistics.aspx
Today’s Chart of the Day is based on data from the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport, showing operations (flight takeoffs and landings) and passengers (boardings and alightings) from 2003 – 2013. As can be seen, MSP peaked almost a decade ago, and traffic has been very steady. While international air travel continues to grow (especially outside the US), this pattern is common in the US domestic market.
Compared to the industry I think we’re down quite a bit. U.S. air travel continued to grow in 2006 and 2007 while we declined both years. Today U.S. overall is about 815 million passengers which is higher than 2006. I think 2013 is expected to beat the 2007 peak.
Not sure if overall this is good, bad, or neutral. For Twin Cities people working in the industry it hasn’t been good due to the job loss. MSP has also lost quite a few non-stop flights so travelers are more likely to have to connect through Detroit, Chicago, or Atlanta which is a concern for companies considering locating operations here.
On the other hand, fewer flights means less noise and air pollution. Fewer companies moving in to the Twin Cities may encourage more local organic growth which I think is generally much better.
We seem to gradually be getting more international flights (Frankfurt via Condor in the summer, additonal summer flights to Paris via Air France), so we seem to be doing at least somewhat okay on at least MSP-European air travel.
I think more for more regional areas around the state and neighboring ones, we should have more rail connections to and from regional centers so people might decide to take the train versus the rail or car for business or weekend/vacation trips..
woops meant additional summer flights to Paris via Air France since last year*
Delta is noted for having increased or maintained available seat miles despite decreasing frequency over the past few years. Which, as a neighbor of MSP, is fine by me. Less CRJs and more MD90s/717s.