 With this year’s MEA weekend right around the corner, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is preparing for the influx of families who travel through MSP every year to take advantage of students' time off during the annual Minnesota teachers conference, known as MEA. The dates this year are Weds., Oct. 20 through Friday Oct., 22. Last year, the weekend led to the busiest days of travel in seven months at MSP.
Look for the following activities taking place on Weds., Oct. 20 in the airport mall at Terminal 1.
- 1 to 4 p.m. - balloon artists will be taking requests near the Snoopy statue.
- 1 and 2:15 p.m. - the Airport Foundation MSP is bringing Joe Mailander of the Minneapolis based OkeeDokeeBrothers to the Airport Mall Gallery, near the Starbucks. Mailander will perform with Jillian Rae and Anthony Ihrig of the High 48’s.
- 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. - for those looking for some creature comfort, you will also find the airport's popular Animal Ambassadors in the mall area.
MSP’s Travel Confidently program, which helps protect travelers and airport employees while encouraging all to take steps to increase safety, is still in place. Face coverings remain mandatory at MSP, and the airport maintains a vigorous cleaning program, encourages social distancing, offers hand sanitizing stations and protective barriers at most customer service counters.
If you’re flying out of MSP Airport for the upcoming MEA weekend, you may be thinking about how to minimize touchpoints along the way. Prebooked Parking is a great way to use your own vehicle and ensure a contact-free commute to the airport.
When you prebook your parking, you don't have to worry about getting a spot – you’re guaranteed a place to park in your ramp of choice. A QR code you receive as part of your confirmation is all you need to enter and exit the ramp. And you can now download the QR code directly to your mobile wallet.
Also, those flying out of Terminal 1 will see significant savings over the drive-up rate. Holiday weekend travelers will save $7 a day on daily parking at Terminal 1 on both Saturday, October 23 & Sunday, October 24 when they book online.
|
 On Oct. 2, 2021, the Navigating MSP program celebrated its 100th session. The program, launched in 2013, offers children and adults with special needs - along with their families - the opportunity for a test run through MSP Airport and on an airplane before they actually take a trip.
The 100th session included the typical program activities like passing through a TSA security checkpoint, exploring the terminal and getting on an actual plane (this time a Delta aircraft) where participants learned about the boarding process and what happens in flight.
“We’ve been fortunate to assist hundreds of families over the years, and the volunteers who guide the families find it as rewarding as the participants do,” said Phil Burke, the assistant director of Customer Experience at MSP.
Eight families attended this special occasion, and each one had a Delta Air Lines pilot to show them around the airport and the airplane.
The test-run portion of the session was followed by a celebratory lunch in the Airport Conference Center in Terminal 1 (pictured).
Launched in 2013 as Navigating Autism with MSP, the program was rebranded as Navigating MSP in 2015 to accommodate anyone that would benefit from a practice run. Since then, more than 4,100 individuals from 1,200 families have participated in Navigating MSP.
The program is offered once a month, on the first or second Saturday.
Full information about the program and how to participate is available here.
As passengers return to the skies, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is continuing to look for more workers to fill open positions. We’re holding a Job Fair to help bring people together.
The Job Fair on Wednesday, Oct. 27 will include dozens of businesses looking for new hires, representing a broad section of employers based at MSP. Open jobs include customer service agents and security; airline positions; retail and restaurant positions including managers, baristas, servers and cooks; sales associates and cashiers. The jobs offer competitive pay and many provide benefits. Others include flight benefits or sign-on bonuses.
You can see some of the current open positions at the airport on this job board.
What: MSP Airport Job Fair
When: Weds., Oct. 27; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: MSP Airport, Terminal 1 Rental Car Lobby, located in the Silver Ramp on the ground level
FACE MASKS ARE REQUIRED
Transportation and Directions:
Public transportation is a convenient way to get to the Job Fair.
Attendees can take either the Metro Blue Line or the Metro Transit Route 54 bus to Terminal 1 at MSP. The Job Fair will be just inside from the doors at the bus stop.
From the Blue Line station, go up the escalators to the tram level at Terminal 1 and follow signs to the Silver Ramp.
Drive and park: Drive to Terminal 1 and park in either the red or blue ramps. Proceed to the tram level lobby for those ramps and follow signs to the Silver Ramp.
|
New options for flights from MSP to Asheville, NC kicked off recently when Allegiant Air and Sun Country Airlines launched inaugural flights to the popular mountain destination.
Both airlines held celebrations at gates in Terminal 2 to mark their first flights to Asheville, an area that features great hiking and a long list of attractions.
The Asheville service is in addition to other routes for both carriers, first announced last summer. From Allegiant, the carrier also started service in recent days to Punta Gorda and Palm Beach, Fla.
|
|
Sun Country launched the same city offerings as well to Punta Gorda and Palm Beach, increasing competition on the popular seasonal routes.
If you’re looking for an autumn getaway, visit either airline's website to get the details on how your options recently expanded.
|
|
 |
 As Minnesota celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 11, Arts@MSP was pleased to highlight the addition of an all-digital art gallery at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) featuring the popular Minnesota Ojibwe Artist Jonathan Thunder and his Manifest’o exhibit. The exhibit will be on long-term display in the digital gallery located in the terminal connector to Concourse B.
The Manifest’o exhibit features a surprisingly colorful scene through animated vignettes that reflect Ojibwe narratives of water, land, and sky. “Today, Ojibwe people of this region perceive the landscape with these stories in mind. It is through this lens that you are invited to see and hear,” Thunder said.
Thunder, an enrolled member of the Minnesota’s Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, was raised in the Twin Cities. He shares these contemporary adaptations of stories heard during his travels in northern parts of the state, where seven Ojibwe reservations are located.
While the exhibit is only accessible to travelers at MSP Airport, complete information about the exhibit is featured on the Foundation’s website. Images are available at this website.
MSP Airport ranked No. 3 among "mega airports" in the latest J.D. Power North America Airport Satisfaction Study released recently – just behind Miami International Airport (MIA) and JFK International Airport (JFK) in New York City.
The 2021 study measures overall traveler satisfaction by examining six factors (in order of importance):
- Terminal facilities
- Airport arrival/departure
- Baggage claim
- Security check
- Check-in/baggage check, and
- Food, beverage and retail.
MIA had an overall score of 828, followed by JFK with 817 and MSP with 815. MSP ranked No. 10 in J.D. Power's 2020 study and No. 2 in its 2019 study of mega airports, which have 33 million or more passengers per year.
"Airport customer satisfaction reached all-time highs when passenger volumes were severely suppressed by the pandemic, but as leisure travel rebounded sharply throughout the spring and summer of 2021, we saw an expected downturn in satisfaction," said Michael Taylor, travel intelligence lead at J.D. Power.
The study is based on 13,225 completed surveys from U.S. or Canadian residents who traveled through at least one U.S. or Canadian airport and covers both departure and arrival experiences (including connecting airports).
|
Autumn is in the air, and we want to know your thoughts on getting in the air yourself for a fall excursion.
MSP Airport is soliciting input from prospective travelers via a survey that gauges attitudes about and interest in air travel. The answers help shape the MSP travel experience as the COVID-19 era becomes more manageable.
Even if you’ve already taken the survey, please feel free to take it again, as your thoughts and answers may have changed over time.
Survey takers have shown interest in MSP's safety initiatives, such as the increased presence of hand sanitizer dispensers, the face mask requirement and the airport’s efforts to increase physical distancing. All of those efforts are part of the airport's Travel Confidently program.
We appreciate your continued interest in helping us make air travel as safe and comfortable as possible.
|
|
