Originally Posted by
TheMoose
Though interestingly the capacity Delta has removed from MSP in the last few years has largely been taken up by a surge in flying by LCC. Delta's "fortress hub" in MSP, directly linked to its profitability, may be in jeopardy as both MSP terminals are already at capacity, and the plan is to add more gates for LCCs, not Delta.
Last I heard, the MAC 20 year plan called for all non-SkyTeam Airlines to move to an expanded Terminal 2, with Delta getting all of Terminal 1, with an expansion (Concourse H so to speak) which will include a larger FIS.
As it stands, Terminal 2 still should have room - right now (SY's peak season), there are 395 weekly departures from there - about 56.4/day out of 10 gates, which isn't a ton. Granted, it's a huge step up from Jan2010 when it was 29.7 flights/day, but there's still plenty of slack.
FWIW, while LCCs have nearly doubled at MSP since then, they are still 11.1% of total departures (from 6.0%) and 15.5% of total seats (from 8.1%).