MSP Airport Sets Record With Nonstop International Destinations

If you're looking to get out of Minnesota and head overseas, you now have a record number of choices leaving from our state's largest airport.

As we've all likely heard, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is the largest airport in the North Star State. So it's no surprise that a LOT of Minnesotans (and Iowans and Wisconsinites and others) head through the TSA checkpoints at MSP each year when traveling across the country and overseas.

It helps that you can fly to A LOT of different places directly from MSP without having to catch a connecting flight elsewhere. In fact, the airport says airlines at MSP served 163 nonstop destinations from the North Star State in 2023, up from 156 destinations in 2023 and 145 destinations in 2022.

ALSO INTERESTING: The Surprising Fact About MSP Airport You May Not Know

Did you know that 18 different airlines fly in and out of MSP? Here's the current line-up, as of May 2025:

+ Aer Lingus
+ Air Canada
+ Air France
+ Alaska Airlines
+ Allegiant Airlines
+ American Airlines
+ Condor Airlines
+ Delta Air Lines
+ Denver Air
+ Discover Airlines
+ Frontier Airlines
+ Icelandair
+ KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
+ Spirit Airlines
+ Southwest Airlines
+ Sun Country Airlines
+ United Airlines
+ WestJet

Those 18 airlines teamed up to provide a lot of planes, either leaving or coming back to Minnesota from those 163 destinations at MSP last year. Overall, MSP saw 324,140 flight operations (both takeoffs and landings) in 2024, up from 323,929 in 2023 and 310,269 in 2022. MSP also averaged 60,644 daily departing seats, up from 56,823 a year ago, an increase of 6.7 percent.

Airlines at MSP served 32 international destinations last year, matching the record level set in 2019. I'm happy to say that my wife and I were part of that record; we flew from MSP to Dublin, Ireland, and back during a 12-day trip overseas in September of 2024.

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And now in May 2025, Delta Air Lines just started non-stop service to Copenhagen, Denmark, and Rome, Italy, offering a total of seven nonstop routes from MSP to various European destinations. Plus, Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines also just started non-stop service to Frankfurt, Germany as well.

When you add them up, those new routes mean MSP offers 35 nonstop international flight options, which is a record number for the airport, according to the Metropolitan Airports Commission, BringMeTheNews reported. Well done!

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With all these increases, it's not a surprise MSP was once again named the best airport in North America for the third year in a row last year, marking the seventh time in the last eight years it won that distinction.

If you're like me, you may not know how to pronounce all those foreign destinations MSP serves. However, you likely *do* know how to correctly pronounce the uniquely Minnesotan names of some of our cities here in the Gopher State, right? Keep scrolling to see how many YOU know how to say.

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Only True Minnesotans Know How to Pronounce These Names

Are you a TRUE Minnesotan? If so, you won't even have to guess how to correctly pronounce the following names of cities and towns here in Minnesota. Take a look-- how many do YOU know how to say?

Gallery Credit: Curt St. John