What Terminal Is Southwest at MSP? Terminal 2 Gates, Check-In, and Connections

I worked airline gates for twelve years, and at a two-terminal airport the question I heard most was some version of “wait, am I even in the right building?” At MSP that answer is easy once somebody tells it to you straight. So here it is, no throat-clearing.

The short answer: Terminal 2 (Humphrey)

Southwest flies out of Terminal 2 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) — the one everyone calls the Humphrey Terminal, named for the former vice president and Minnesota senator Hubert Humphrey. It’s MSP’s smaller building, a single concourse (Concourse H), and it is not Terminal 1. That’s the whole answer to the question you typed.

Now the part other pages get sloppy about: those gates. You’ll see sites list Southwest’s exact gates as H11, H12 and H14. Treat that as a rumor, not gospel. Neither the airport’s own website nor Southwest publishes fixed per-airline gates at Terminal 2, because gate assignments here are made day-of. Concourse H runs from about H1 through H14, plus a couple of newer gates added near H1 in 2024 — with still more on the way by 2027 — and which one is yours depends on the day you fly. Read the boards, not somebody’s blog from two years ago.

Terminal 2 is shared, too. Southwest sits alongside Sun Country, Frontier, Icelandair and a handful of others. Delta and the big legacy names are all next door in Terminal 1. If you want the full layout before you go, here’s MSP’s Terminal 2 overview.

Getting from check-in to your Southwest gate, step by step

Think of it as a straight line: curb → ticketing → security → your gate on Concourse H. Three moves after you park, and Terminal 2 is small enough that none of them should trip you up.

Check-in and bag drop (Level 1, Ticketing Lobby)

Everything starts in the Ticketing Lobby on Level 1. That’s where you buy tickets, get boarding passes and check bags — Southwest’s counter and kiosks are all down there. Some airlines also offer curbside check-in outside the terminal, if you’d rather hand off the suitcase before you walk in the door. Either way, mind Southwest’s checked-bag cutoff before departure and get your bag tagged and moving early rather than cutting it close.

Security: two checkpoints on Level 2

Security lives on Level 2, up from ticketing. Terminal 2 has two checkpoints: one by the Orange Ramp skyway and one by the Purple Ramp skyway. Use whichever is closer to where you parked — they both feed the same concourse. Hours matter here: at least one checkpoint is open from 4 a.m. until the last scheduled flight, and both close between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. An early Southwest departure is fine; there’s just no clearing security in the dead middle of the night.

One MSP-specific trick worth knowing: the airport runs a free program called MSP RESERVE that lets you book a security-line time slot in advance. It costs nothing and can spare you the worst of a line on a busy morning. Confirm your gate while you’re at it on MSP’s live departures and gate board.

Finding your gate in Concourse H

Here’s where MSP is refreshingly simple. Terminal 2 is one concourse — H — and that’s it. No satellite pods, no automated people mover, no train out to a remote building. If you’ve flown Southwest through Orlando, you know the drill there: you check in on one side and then ride a driverless train to the gates (I laid that whole thing out in Southwest’s Terminal A guide at Orlando (MCO)). MSP has none of that. You clear security and walk to your gate. The gates run in an H series along that single spine — roughly H1 through H14, plus a couple of newer ones added near H1 in 2024 and more on the way through 2027.

Because it’s a compact concourse with day-of assignments, don’t marry a gate number you saw online. Trust the live boards or the Southwest app. Your gate can move between the app notification and the moment you actually sit down.

No, Southwest isn’t in Terminal 1

I keep seeing people turn up at the wrong building, so let me kill this one cleanly: Southwest does not fly from Terminal 1. Terminal 1 — the Lindbergh Terminal — is the big Delta fortress, and its airline roster is Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air France, Alaska, American, Delta, Denver Air, Discover, KLM, Lufthansa, United and WestJet. Southwest is not on that list, full stop.

This matters more at MSP than at a lot of airports. At a single-building airport, the wrong terminal means the wrong concourse — annoying but walkable. At MSP, Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 are separate buildings with no walkway between them. Land at the wrong one and you haven’t made a wrong turn; you’ve gone to the wrong address. More on crossing that gap in a minute.

Arrivals and baggage claim on Southwest

Flying in instead of out? Southwest’s baggage claim and arrivals sit on the ground level of Terminal 2, the same Level 1 zone as ticketing. Watch the arrivals boards for your carousel and don’t panic if the bags take a few minutes. Ground transportation — rideshare, taxis, rental cars, hotel shuttles — stages right outside on that level, so tell whoever’s collecting you “Terminal 2” and have them wait until you actually have your bag in hand.

Connecting between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2

This is the part that catches people at MSP, so pay attention. The two terminals are not connected by any walkway. You cannot walk from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. If your inbound flight lands at Terminal 1 — say you connected off Delta or American — and your Southwest flight leaves from Terminal 2, you have to physically travel between buildings.

The way across is the METRO Blue Line light rail, and the good news is it’s free between the two terminal stations. No ticket, no tap, nothing — you only pay if you ride past the airport into the city. Trains run about every 10 to 15 minutes, roughly every 10 at peak, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Between 11 p.m. and 4:30 a.m., an airport shuttle bus fills in for the train. The ride itself is short — about five minutes, platform to platform.

Getting to the platform from Terminal 2 takes a minute of navigation: from Level 1 near Ticketing, take the elevator or escalator up to the Orange Ramp skyway, follow the LRT signs, then go down one level to the platform. It’s all fully accessible. If the light rail doesn’t work for you — mobility needs, a lot of gear — there’s a complimentary inter-terminal shuttle that picks up at the ground level of the Purple Ramp instead.

Budget honestly for the whole move if you’re connecting into Southwest from a Terminal 1 arrival: figure the walk to the platform, the wait, the roughly five-minute ride, then the walk to Terminal 2 security and up to Concourse H. That’s not a five-minute connection — give it a comfortable 45 minutes to an hour on top of your inbound arrival, more if you’re rechecking a bag. For the deeper strategy, especially in winter when weather compresses everything, read MSP’s winter connection playbook on the terminal-to-terminal tram. And a bonus: that same Blue Line runs on into town — Mall of America is about 12 minutes out, downtown Minneapolis’s Warehouse District about 25 — so on a long layover you’re one train ride from something better than a gate seat.

Terminal 2 is getting bigger through 2027

If you haven’t flown through Terminal 2 in a couple of years, expect a construction backdrop. The Metropolitan Airports Commission is in the middle of a $263 million Terminal 2 North Expansion — about 168,000 square feet — that adds two gates and widens the spacing and seating at the current northernmost gates, H13 and H14. A separate project already added two more gates near H1 back in late 2024. The North Expansion is targeted for completion in early 2027, and the long-range 2040 plan imagines Terminal 2 growing from 14 gates to as many as 36.

Why all this now? Terminal 2 outgrew itself. In March 2024 it had its busiest month ever — 711,612 passengers and 4,588 airline operations, both about 10% above the old records, according to the Metropolitan Airports Commission. For you, today, the practical takeaway is small: more room is coming, but it’s still one concourse for the foreseeable future, so the navigation above doesn’t change. Just don’t be surprised by hoarding and a detour or two near the north end.

How early should you really arrive for a Southwest flight at MSP?

MSP has earned its reputation, and it isn’t marketing fluff. J.D. Power scored it 800 out of 1,000 in 2022, best among the largest US and Canadian airports, and in 2023 the analytics firm Cirium named MSP the most punctual international airport in the world, with on-time rates north of 84% for both departures and arrivals. Translation: this is a well-run airport that mostly does what its timetable says — and after twelve years watching timetables lie, I don’t hand that out lightly.

So how early? For an ordinary Southwest departure, two hours is honest. Terminal 2 is compact and the security setup moves, so you’re not facing an ATL- or ORD-scale grind. But don’t get cocky either — this is the building that set passenger records, and its crowds funnel into one concourse. On a holiday weekend or a peak morning, give yourself 2.5 hours, and book an MSP RESERVE slot if you want to skip the worst of the line. If you’re connecting in from Terminal 1, start that clock earlier and add the light-rail crossing on top.

Southwest at MSP: quick FAQ

Is Southwest in Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 at MSP? Terminal 2, the Humphrey Terminal. Never Terminal 1.

What gates does Southwest use at MSP? Somewhere on Concourse H — roughly the H1 through H14 range, plus a few newer gates added near H1 in 2024. Some sites cite H11, H12 and H14, but MSP assigns Terminal 2 gates day-of, so trust the live boards over any fixed number.

Is there a walkway between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2? No. The only way across is the free METRO Blue Line light rail, with an overnight shuttle bus filling in from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m.

How do I get between terminals if I’m connecting? Ride the Blue Line between the terminal stations — free, about every 10–15 minutes, roughly a five-minute ride. Budget 45 minutes to an hour for the whole move.

How early should I get to MSP for a Southwest flight? Two hours normally; 2.5 on holidays and peak mornings. Add time if you’re connecting from Terminal 1.