I have no doubt international traffic is up since 2003. The real question before MAC decides to expand an international terminal is what has happened to international travel since 2009 when Delta moved NWA corporate to Atlanta? And, what will be the traffic in the next 10 years?

Icelandair, the only foreign carrier currently flying into MSP,uses the Humphery terminal which makes connections to other airlines difficult.Northwest used to service Icelandair flights at MSP and they operated into the main terminal until 2007.British Airways or All Nippon and other foreign flag carriers will not fly into MSP unless they can fly into the main terminal.Delta will service the Air France flights at MSP just as KLM flights were serviced by Northwest a decade ago.What gates will these foreign flag carriers use?I'm not sure that Delta wants a competitor using its gates.MSP is still a Delta hub.United and American would rather have you made a connection in Chicago to their flights abroad than service foreign carriers here.United does service Air Canada Jazz flights here but these are regional jets not 747's.

The story is local, but the study is national or international. The study time frame includes bust and boom economic periods, and MSP had major changes during the sturdy period. The unanswered MSP question is what percent of boardings were international in 2005 compared to 2011? What may concern Lufthansa, Air France, etc. is the MAC Chair referring to Delta as the airport's"business partner."

What Delta is thinking puzzles me. MSP carries far more traffic than Detroit, but Delta considers Detroit more of an international gateway than MSP. In addition to the markets Delta flies out of MSP, Detroit flies to Frankfurt, Nagoya, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai. And into addition to that Royal Jordanian flies to Jordan, Lufthansa to Frankfurt.

Air France just started direct flights from MSP to Paris. Why is MAC waiting for its boss (Delta) to call the shots? Go recruit some competition!

British Airways or All Nippon and other foreign flag carriers will not fly into MSP unless they can fly into the main terminal.Delta will service the Air France flights at MSP just as KLM flights were serviced by Northwest a decade ago.----------Any Skyteam airlines (Delta, Alitalia, Air France, KLM, Aeroméxico...) would use the Main Terminal. All other none Skyteam flights would have to use the Humphrey Terminal. That is why Icelandair uses that terminal.

33M passengers in 2011. 1.7M foreign passengers or 5.1 %. 100k more makes it's 5.4%. woohoo

@northhill not really sure why non-skyteam carriers like Icelandair, LH, BA, or ANA would want to be in Terminal 1... those flights would be for O&D travelers from the Twin Cities, not connecting travelers like DL/SkyTeam. And T2 is much nicer from an O&D perspective than T1... much easier to get around. Plus, non SkyTeam carriers are planning to be at T2 down the line, so it would make more sense to have AC and LH at T2, since then there's the potential for connections on *A carriers like United and US Air.