Pictures like this one make me realise how completely fucked up the airline industry got with the hub mentality. There’s no real competition here, as you can plainly see one airline dominates the entire field. Wanna leave Minnesota? Who ya gonna call?
It’s like that in any other hub (like, say, Denver), and really limits your available choices. Some of the bigger airports in places like NYC, LHR, and LAX are a lot better, and it shows as I can fly to London for a heck of a lot less money than Minnesota (although the odds of me wanting to pay to go to minne-fucking-apolis are slim, so in my case it’s a non-issue).
That leads to all the fun that comes with a monopoly, and for some reason our gummints continue to think that this is behaviour that should be publicly bailed out. Like any dominitrix, they’ve got you by the short and curlies, and you pay for the pleasure.
Whee.
(NB: this pic is pretty old. Northwest changed their livery a couple years bag, so a more recent photo probably wouldn’t illustrate the point of who’s #1 in MN as much)