MSP Airport Ranks Second For On-Time Holiday Flights

If you’re bracing for long lines, delayed departures, and holiday travel chaos, you might need to rethink at least one of those assumptions. There is more good news about Minnesota’s busiest airport this season — and it might change how you feel about flying during the holidays.

MSP Airport Ranks Among the Best in the U.S. for Holiday Travel

It's another impressive ranking for the biggest airport in Minnesota, which has once again been named one of the best airports in the entire country in this important category, especially during the holiday travel season.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is the largest-- and busiest-- 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.

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Why MSP Is a Favorite for Holiday Flyers

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 that airlines at MSP served 163 nonstop destinations from the Land of 10,000 Lakes in 2023, up from 156 destinations in 2023 and 145 destinations in 2022.

And now, a new survey has just listed MSP as one of the best airports in the country when it comes to holiday flight delays. Specifically, they don't happen nearly as much here at MSP as they do at other airports around the country.

Courtesy Metropolitan Airports Commission

New Survey Shows MSP Excels at On-Time Holiday Flights

According to USA Today, travel site Saily ranked airlines and airports based on their on-time performance over the last two holiday seasons to find out which airports are the most reliable when it comes to flights leaving on time. They looked at data from Dec. 2023 and 2024 using regularly scheduled commercial flight information from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

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And their result showed that MSP Airport is #2 in the entire country when it comes to reliable, on-time flights over the holiday season, USA Today reported. MSP's flights left and arrived on time 84.08 percent of the time over the previous two Decembers. Only Salt Lake City International Airport ranked higher in the survey, coming in with an on-time ranking of 85.91 percent.

It helps that the largest airline serving MSP, Delta Air Lines, also ranked high in this Saily survey, coming in at #2 on the list of the most reliable airlines over the holiday season, with an on-time ranking of 85.17 percent, USA Today noted.

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So, shout-out to MSP airport for another feather in its cap. We're lucky to have such a well-run and managed airport right here in our own backyard in the Bold North!

If you are doing any traveling this holiday season, keep scrolling to check out a list of items even the most lenient TSA employee won't let you take on board the plane, whether at MSP or any other airport.

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