Airport (1970)

Airport was released in 1970 and was filmed in part at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP). Because of that local connection—and because the film helped define the 1970s disaster-movie genre—it has always been an interesting part of the airport’s history.

I wrote a more detailed article about the movie and its connection to MSP. Read the article in Hennepin History.

The opening, credits, airport interior, and runway scenes were all shot at the airport. The opening is particularly interesting for its glimpse of the facilities, which were about ten year's old at that time of the filming. The top image from the film shows the main ticketing level at MSP, except the right side of it was all fabricated. Northwest "Orient" was real, but Trans Global was not. One story is that someone actually tried to purchase a ticket from Lufthansa, which did not serve MSP at the time of the film. All general parking was in a lot, and there were no ramps as there are today.  One of my favorite shots is that of the winter runway treatment machine, which was a real innovation implemented by the Metropolitan Airports Commission. It wasn't designed to melt all of the ice, but imbed sand into the ice, which would give traction to the runway.