Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport Walking Program

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has teamed with the American Heart Association to bring its nationwide Start! Walking program to the airport. Does that mean lugging your heavy bags around even more?! Pretty much. The route includes a 1.4-mile hike around MSP’s Lindbergh Terminal. The route is marked on overhead way-finding signs with circular green mileage markers for travelers to keep track of their progress. That’s cool. Walkers travel a square circuit that begins near Gate C1, they then proceed down the C concourse, cross the Concourse Skyway Connector, travel down Concourse G, and stroll through the main shopping and dining corridor – a perfect 20 to 40 minute walk between flights, provided you don’t get too distracted by the food and shopping.

“The program aims to encourage travelers to stretch their legs and engage in healthy exercise between flights,” said Jack Lanners, chairman of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns and operates MSP. “By working with the American Heart Association to bring the Start! program to MSP, we are providing another option travelers can consider to make the most of their time at the airport.”

Need a better reason to get off your bum than just good health? Well, MSP officials and Northwest Airlines are offering a passenger walking contest through September 17, 2007. The grand prize is a round-trip ticket anywhere Northwest Airlines flies in the continental United States (that is assuming they don’t cancel your flight or treat you as badly as they have me with my airline miles). To participate, take your boarding pass to the Travelers Assistance office located near the entrance to Concourses C and D, register for the contest, pick up a pedometer, walk as much of the terminal as possible that day and then return the pedometer to the same location to have their steps recorded. Hard to cheat that deal. Each time you visit MSP over the four-week period you can pick up a pedometer and add to your total. The traveler with the most recorded steps at the end of the contest wins. So, that probably means he with the most delays wins…

What a great program! Get to walking…