Saint Paul Airport (MSP) Webcam in Minneapolis

If you land on this webcam when it’s focused on the FedEx loading bay, don’t be too disappointed. Stay with this 24/7 live feed from St Paul Airport in Minneapolis and you’ll find it gets a lot more exciting. In fact it gets so exciting most aviation fans will have trouble containing themselves. The cam view changes every few seconds and flits from the FedEx view to the runways and even tracks flights taking off and coming in to land. Is that all? No, it’s not.

Turn the sound on and you’ll hear the air traffic controllers doing what only they know how to do. If you want to fully understand what they’re talking about, brush up on your NATO phonetic alphabet otherwise it’ll be like listening to gibberish. The NATO phonetic alphabet, also called the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, first came into general use during WW2 to make communications between various participating armed forces, who used different radio alphabets, less confusing. Unless you’re someone who can remember all the code words, it can still prove to be confusing, but thankfully the ATC’s at St Paul have it down to a tee.

Here’s some tidbits for those who like a bit of additional info. Minneapolis – St Paul International Airport first opened for service in 1920. From once being a disused speedway track, in the ensuing century it has expanded to cover almost three and a half thousand acres, has four concrete runways and caters to thirty-five million, or thereabouts, passengers a year. Currently those St Paul Airport air traffic controllers deal with just short of a thousand aircraft a day so good luck with trying to keep up with their delta, bravo, oscar, romeo, tango, foxtrot and yankees, or whatever, you’ll need it.