MINNEAPOLIS - The Lindbergh Terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The terminal opened up in January of 1962.
Originally designed to handle 14,000 passengers a day, the terminal now accomodates 80,000 travelers on a daily basis. With an increase in passengers, several expansions and new amenities have also been added.
2 touch screen directories were installed in the Airport Mall in 2010. They allow you to search for restaurants and shops. They will even calculate how long it takes to get to your gate. Patrick Hogan with the Metropolitan Airports Commission says more of the directories will soon be added to Concourse C.
When the Lindbergh Terminal opened in 1962 there was just a dining room, a snack bar and a coffee shop. Today there are 47 different options for food. You can even get food delivered right to your gate using your phone. Using the "B4 You Board" app, you can place an order and have it delivered to you within 20 minutes. Only a select number of restaurants inside the airport participate. The app also works at Chicago O'Hare and New York's JKF Airport.
If that wasn't convenient enough, ordering food is about to get even easier. Over the next 18 months, $40 million is getting pumped into Concourse G. iPads will be accessible in the concourse where passengers can order from 11 new restaurants and have the food delivered right to their gate.
The airport also plans to spend $2.4 billion on expansions through the year 2030. Right now, 33 million people travel through the Lindbergh Terminal each year. By 2030 that number is expected to climb to 55 million.
The MSP International Airport is asking the public to share stories from inside the Lindbergh Terminal. To share yours or read others visit their Facebook page.
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