Frigid Minneapolis Spotting

Real World Aviation Spotting
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Frigid Minneapolis Spotting | December 1st, 2024

On this very frigid Sunday morning, I braved the single-digit RealFeel to head over to MSP’s official spotting site to catch some of the midday traffic. Unfortunately, the 30s were in use, meaning that arriving traffic was on the opposite end of the airfield, and there’s a lot more arrivals than departures at this time of day. This was the first time I used my new phone, an iPhone 16 Pro, for spotting, and I was very pleased with the quality, especially for such long distance shots.

Delta Air Lines 717 | STL-MSP

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Delta operates its largest base of 717s out of Minneapolis, which are used to connect Minneapolis to cities in the region like Milwaukee, Saint Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago.

Delta A321 | MSP-LAX

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After a lengthy takeoff roll, this Delta A321 is heading out for a 3 hour flight to Los Angeles

Delta A320 | MSP-HRL

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Blasting off for Harlingen, along the Texas coast near the Mexican border. Harlingen and nearby South Padre Island is an increasingly popular tourist destination

Southwest 737-800 | MSP-DAL

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Another flight heading to Texas, this time to Dallas, taxis out for departure, past one of MSP’s 2 fire stations.

Delta A330-900neo | LHR-MSP

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The star of the show, this beautiful A330neo buttered in on one of two daily runs from London Heathrow.

United A319 | MSP-ORD

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A little Evo Blue A319 takes to the skies for the hour long ride southeast to the Windy City

Sun Country 737-800s | MSP-Various

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3 Sun Country 737-800s push back for Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix

Sun Country 737-800 | EWR-MSP

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After a couple hours in the air from Newark, this Sun Country 737-800 crosses Runway 30L to make its way over to the gate after landing on 30R. In the background is a WestJet 737-800 still in the Swoop livery, which is heading to Saskatoon.

Delta 757-300 | MSP-PHX

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The extra long flying pencil blasts out of Minnesota for sunny Phoenix.

Arizona Cardinals 777-200ER | On Ground

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This isn’t the most high quality picture by any means, as it was taken from almost a mile away, but this is the Arizona Cardinal’s 777-200ER parked. it came in from Phoenix yesterday, with the Cardinals on board. They are facing off against the Minnesota Vikings at US Bank Stadium as I write this.

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nice pictures! I think the Cardinals plane is a 772 actually

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Oh dang, you’re right! Thanks for pointing that out.

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no problem!

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first of yall your lucky

good pictures

and with what you saw I would stand in 20 degrees for, because in NC you don’t see much of that. I have to drive 3 hours to RDU too (trying to do that for xmas break)

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Nice, thanks for spotting that 767 for me!

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Freezing here today too. (in my world, not living in Minnesota)

Cool pics!

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I always thought ATL was its B717 hub. I’ve seen so many B717s in ATL but not in MSP when I’m on FR24.

Also since when was this a thing? I always thought they operated once a day with their A332. So does that mean I can realistically fly this route. (I so am)

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Yes, I’m very glad I have it. It was an upgrade promo from my carrier after the iPhone 16 was first released.

I’m happy I live so close to a big airport! The spotting here is great, since there’s an officially designated site, but it’s not a huge amount of variety, since the majority of the traffic is Delta.

There were tons of cargo 767s lined up, mostly from FedEx. There was also a Delta 767 parked at a gate, but I didn’t get a picture of it.

Yeah, the entire northern US is in a bit of a cold snap.

Thanks!

I heard we were the largest 717 hub from a Delta pilot I know, but they could be wrong (they don’t fly 717s, they fly Airbus).

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Well he’s probably right if he works for DAL.

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It’s been on the neo for a while.

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I guess I have to pay attention more then. It’s nice to see them operate their NEOs to LHR rather than only its SkyTeam hubs. I wish they put some more A333s there as well. LHR - JFK is a lucrative route (nicknamed “The Billion Dollar Route”) so I’m sure they can get an A333 in there rather than just an older B767.

Now I know another route I want to do during Christmas break.

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An update - the Minnesota Vikings pulled off a last minute win, 23-22.

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That’s a long A319…

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You’re right, it’s an A320. My mistake.

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Nice shots @Mort! I’ll have to make my way down there again soon. Even if the temps are uncomfortable.

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I’m glad rdu did the same. They also gave a great variety of other ones aka ParkRDU central, grass area by Cargo apron, etc

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Cardinals shoulda won 🥲

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Thanks!

That’s the price we pay for living in Minnesota.

It’s a great way to do community outreach.

I was shocked that the Vikings pulled that off, honestly. Played really poorly at certain points in the game. Similar to last week’s game agains the Bears. That’s the life of a Vikings fan - expect the unexpected.

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Nice pics.