I was also listening to the hourlong presentation, and I too thought that was odd. Northwest has a lot of gates at Minneapolis, and some of Northwest gates are underutilized, in my opinion. Besides, I doubt that there would be much SkyTeam carrier who would request any more new gates to begin with. Granted, if one or two carrier does decide to move over to the new Humphrey terminal, it would allow for slight expansion of the SkyTeam partner carrier, but Lindbergh terminal shouldn't be limited to Northwest partners only. It's a superior facility (with lots of shopping), and other services.

I think this is Northwest's way of taking over as many gates as possible at MSP (keeping more gates underutilized), and allowing the other MAJOR (non-LCC) carriers to take over the other terminal, minimizing the chances for perhaps, a low fare carrier to begin or expanding their operation at MSP. (hmm....I wonder if Southwest is getting warm on idea of starting a flight service to MSP?! That would be bad mostly through reduction in service on Northwest flight due to increased competition and lower fares.)

Jiburi '04

(seems a bit like Detroit)