Economy · Transportation

What improvements would you like to see in Twin Cities air service?

Eric Ringham Feb 28, 2012
26

The Metropolitan Airports Commission is about to name a new airline that will begin serving Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. An airport official says the change could mean increased competition and lower fares. Today’s Question: What improvements would you like to see in Twin Cities air service?

  • Aleksandra

    everything is fine with Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Commute to the city is fine and easy. Every improvement can be in benefit of passengers and visitors.

  • reggie

    I travel once or twice a month. Every time I walk down the long corridors of underutilized Delta gates, it irks me that one company has a strangle hold on the main terminal. How many studies will it take to prove — and every study has — that the lack of competition makes Twin Cities travelers pay significantly higher fares? I believe in the efficiency of a competitive free market for most things. We don’t have a competitive free market for air travel here.

    Another lower-cost airline flying from Humphrey is fine, but it will only change the pricing on the specific routes they fly (they’ll only be going to two cities, according to today’s news). Another airline flying to Chicago won’t change the options and prices for travel overall. For that we need another significant player flying from the main terminal.

  • Gary F

    I travel primarily on business and don’t get to choose my airlines.

    I do prefer Humphrey, the #2, if I can. Less screwing around, quicker bags, quicker security, less time sitting on the tarmac.

    I’d like to see more competition at Lindbergh, the #1.

    It doesn’t matter which brand, just someone else. Especially the ones with non-stops to cities that Delta has a lock on.

    Are you going #1 or #2? Kinda sound like the potty training days, doesn’t it?

  • Alex

    I would like to not have to take my shoes off at the TSA checkpoint.

  • Tim

    More parking at terminal 1. Two times I have had to park at term #2 and have almost missed my flight and it’s really adds to an already long travel day when I come home.

    I have had some of the longest TSA waits of any airport I’ve been to at MSP but when people show up 2 hours early and barely make their flight that is an issue. The day in question about 40% of the line missed their flights.

    Put competition at terminal #1 to help reduce fairs in at MSP and hopefully help improve Delta’s some what mediocre service.

  • Gary F

    Kansas City airport doesn’t have the TSA, they have another vendor.

    It would be nice to have separate contracts for the #1 and the #2 with two different agencies for security.

    Competition with the TSA is a better idea.

  • Steve the Cynic

    If real competition doesn’t emerge, we should regulate Delta’s monopoly like a public utility.

  • Jim G

    New carriers should be encouraged to locate at both terminals only if they treat their customers as people and not cargo. After the buyout of Northwest, Delta has over priced its services for us country rubes. I first flew before deregulation. It was exciting and fun, flying today is having a crying baby screaming in your ear for three hours, round trip. That is not exciting or fun.

  • Heather

    Free WiFi like almost every other major airport. Even Fargo has free WiFi.

  • Gary F

    “If real competition doesn’t emerge, we should regulate Delta’s monopoly like a public utility.”

    That will lose our hub status in a heartbeat. Delta has too many hubs as it is. It would give them an excuse to leave.

    Hub status means lower prices for “hub to hub” competition. Whenever you are flying to someones’s hub airport, fares are the lowest. Costs go up, when you fly to a “non hub” city.

  • Gary F

    We need another carrier that will compete with Delta with direct flights to non hub cities, like Winnipeg, San Diego, San Antonio, etc. Bigger cities that aren’t hubs.

    The price to fly direct to Winnipeg is usually over $1000. If you fly into Chicago then Winnipeg, the cost is half that.

  • Steve the Cynic

    In other words, Gary F, Delta has us over a barrel. If we play by their rules, we’re screwed, and if we don’t, we’re screwed differently. So much for the idea that the Invisible Hand of the Free Market will magically solve all of our problems!

  • Philip

    I would like to see a comprehensive program on reducing the noise pollution from the airport and also the freeways around the Twin Cities. I don’t really care too much about the competition among airlines, but am more concerned with how much blasted noise we all make.

  • bsimon

    Like others, I’d like to see an end to Delta’s effective monopoly. Competition is good!

  • Wally

    Get rid of the TSA bureaucracy.

    Cheaper parking farther out with shuttle buses to the airport.

    Make the airport a place to do more than just fly, with observation decks to just watch planes. That’s how I got excited about aviation when I was a kid; my dad took me to the airport and we just watched planes. (Ha. Homeland Security would really sign off on that, wouldn’t they?!)

    Encourage ICELAND AIR to expand its MSP flight schedule.

  • Ed

    Better customer service. Airline travel is just transportation and in many cases people have a choice (mode of transportation, airport, and airline). Anything that improves customer choice should also eventually allow for more competitive service or a more competitive price or even both to an extent.

    I don’t think the airline experience with regards to customer service needs to be like the days before deregulation, however there is plenty of room for improvement. Currently the experience is more along the lines of moving human cargo.

    I fly about every other week out of MSP for business, and I would welcome some competition. Living in a hub has obvious benefits, however there are also consequences that are less obvious.

  • Gary F

    “In other words, Gary F, Delta has us over a barrel. If we play by their rules, we’re screwed, and if we don’t, we’re screwed differently. So much for the idea that the Invisible Hand of the Free Market will magically solve all of our problems!”

    No, the MAC(government) controls our market. It’s not a free market if the government makes the rules and chooses who can play. Slapping more rules on Delta wont make them better.

    Let someone compete with Delta at the #1. That is what they are trying to do.

    We need a major carrier at our airport to keep hub status. Let one of the other big boys or up and coming carriers compete at the #1. I don’t care if its Delta, I just want a major firm to use us as their hub.

  • Sarah

    Obviously, better customer service would be a cheap way for airlines to make customers happier, but I don’t notice that MSP airlines are any worse at this than at other airports (…the bar’s low all around…).

    And obviously cheaper fares would be a powerful way to make customers 1) happy, and 2) more likely to, well, be customers, but we know that’s not going to happen.

    I guess the change I would most like to see is: more direct flights to more cities. I’m tired of flying to DC or Philly and always having to go through Atlanta first. It doubles your flight time.

  • Cornbear

    Remember when we used to call our home airline “Northworst?” Now we call those the good old days.

    As for improving service, short of reviving Republic Airlines, I guess I agree with the comment about free wi-fi. Albuquerque has it, courtesy of the City of Albuquerque.

  • GregX

    the solution to a lot of this is to upgrade air-traffic control (ATC) system to the modern GPS and proximiity alert system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B. it introduces a big shift in how airlines fly between cities. The existing ATC re-inforces the economic benefits of hub and spoke. the new ADS-B will allow direct flights along previously unused routes – which saves fuel and exposes airports to more potential airlines as customers. Think of this chagne making airports run more like seaports. Any ship can pull into any port, discharge cargo, pick up fuel and new cargo and be on its way. NOW that is competition.

  • James

    One simple rule change.

    First bag free….whether you carry it on or put it under the plane.

    Then at least once you’ve paid too much for your ticket, paid too much for your airport food, and endured the humiliation of TSA you can board quickly and find a place for your bag if you didn’t check it.

  • Stephen

    More direct international flights.

  • Don

    Cheaper flights to Detroit.

  • Joey

    A place to disassemble and reassemble bicycles, with bike boxes available for purchase. The Portland, OR airport has this and it is awesome. Or anyway, it would be awesome if there was a corresponding station at my usual destination airport: Minneapolis.

  • Cheryl

    I’d like to see an international carrier (NOT DELTA) offer non-stop flights to Beijing, Hong Kong, or any other Asian city. It’s ridiculous to fly two hours EAST to Detroit, and then back west right over MSP to get to Asia. Far better to avoid Delta and fly to a western gateway. Clearly, MSP has not done well with international non-stops.

  • Mike

    Free cannabis cookies with every flight 🙂