KLM Airlines quietly canceled all of its winter flying between Minneapolis (MSP) and Amsterdam (AMS) over the weekend, just days after adding service to Portland, Oregon (PDX).
Starting Oct. 27, KLM will officially begin nonstop service between PDX and AMS three times a week, marking its newest destination the Dutch carrier has never previously served in the United States, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.
KLM will temporarily stop its service to MSP just two days before PDX begins on Oct. 25. KLM is currently scheduled to resume the MSP route on March 29 to pick up the summer seasonal schedule with four flights per week (up from 2024's three flights per week), but not without canceling on many travelers this winter first.
Currently, KLM flies one of its Boeing 777s to MSP and plans to use a Boeing 787 Dreamliner to service Portland, so it's not clear that the Minneapolis cut is a direct result of the addition of PDX service, but the start and end dates of both routes are within two days of each other and the schedule changes also came just days apart.
Minneapolis Competition Dwindles During Winter
Minneapolis flyers are getting used to these seasonal cuts, after Aer Lingus did so in 2020 and Air France made a similar exodus in 2023. Both airlines made returns in 2024 for the summer season.
Air France now only operates seasonally out of Minneapolis, with plans to leave the market on Sept. 29 and return on April 28, according to their current schedule.
Aer Lingus and Condor also fly seasonal summer routes from MSP to Dublin (DUB) and Frankfurt (FRA) respectively. Aer Lingus's operation ends Oct. 28. Aer Lingus has not yet scheduled a return to MSP in spring 2025. Condor will wrap up FRA flights on Sept. 13 and also hasn't rescheduled MSP for the spring yet. Icelandair will also vacate MSP for the winter as it does every year.
Without Air France, Condor, KLM, or Aer Lingus that leaves Minneapolis flyers with only two options to get to Europe this winter: Delta and Lufthansa.
Luckily, when Lufthansa added MSP to its map earlier this year, it promised year-round service. Lufthansa will connect flyers to Germany and beyond four times per week all the way through 2025, including its fancy business class.
Then that leaves Delta. Minneapolis's biggest carrier will service London (LHR), Paris (CDG), and Amsterdam (AMS) this winter with zero competition, which is not good news for consumers based in the Upper Midwest. Typically, travelers can count on reduced fares during the off-season (i.e. the winter months) but when Delta is the only game in town, it rarely offers discounts for travelers.
KLM and Delta are partners, so they typically team up to set fares and to fly each others passengers across the Atlantic. But a reduction of a three Boeing 777s a week is a huge dent in the number of seats criss-crossing the ocean from MSP. That's a recipe for rising fares.
As of Monday morning, the cheapest fares travelers could find on Delta to Europe this winter were basic economy rates in the mid-$700s.
They're not the most offensive fares we've seen, but these KLM route reductions are still new, meaning Delta might soon change its tune when it realizes it's alone on many of these routes.
Delta and KLM Swap in Portland
After flying nonstop from Portland (PDX) to Amsterdam (AMS) since at least 2010, Delta officially removed the flight from its schedule for 2025 last week. But it wasn't minutes before KLM swooped in.
Delta will end its AMS service on Oct. 25 and KLM will begin on the 27th. The transition between SkyTeam partners serving the route will be relatively seamless.
Fares will initially go down a little bit when KLM starts service, as evidenced by this Google Flights calendar search of PDX-AMS flights.
The quick change will only slightly hurt capacity flying to Europe from Portland (PDX). This KLM flight will only operate three days a week, as opposed to Delta's daily service.
In the winter, Portland typically loses service to Reykjavik (KEF) on Icelandair and to Frankfurt (FRA) on Condor. British Airways will service Portland year-round, however, giving KLM a little bit of competition through the winter months.
What Happens If Your Flight is Cancelled?
If your flight was a casualty of one of these cuts, the airlines will likely rebook you onto another flight.
This may have happened already, or will happen in the coming days or weeks. Ultimately, because the Minneapolis (MSP) route is still served by KLM's partner Delta and the opposite is true for the Portland (PDX) flights to Amsterdam (AMS), you'll likely be booked onto a partner flight operated by Delta or KLM.
There is a chance the airline moves your flight times by a few hours, or even a few days in that case. In some cases, you may be re-routed through another airport, even.
Wherever and whenever the airline rebooks you, if the new itinerary does not work for you, make sure you call or chat with the airline. When major itinerary changes happen, you'll often be able to ask a representative to put you on a more convenient routing free of charge. Make sure you do some research on which Delta or KLM routing you'd prefer before you call.
Bottom Line
KLM's swap with Delta in Portland (PDX) and its winter exodus of Minneapolis (MSP) are happening almost simultaneously this fall.
Starting in October, MSP will lose KLM service for the winter season while PDX will gain KLM service year-round just two days later after Delta exited the PDX-Amsterdam (AMS) route.
In both cases, travelers will have fewer choices to fly across the Atlantic starting this fall.
As far as I know, your blog is a general travel/points and miles blog, so why do you post so much about Minneapolis? It seems to be the 46th largest city in the US with a tiny population of around 430,000 people. There are many larger US cities without nonstop flights to Europe. It seems like Minneapolis natives should feel lucky that there are any nonstop flights. Just because Delta has chosen to put a hub there doesn’t give the city outsized importance in my view.
Hi Daniel,
Thrifty Traveler is based out of Minneapolis and we have a large readership here – thus the reason we cover some of this news. Also, the fact that it is a hub, cutting the route causes issues for lots of people who have award travel booked that routes through MSP. Thanks for reading.
Wow, that’s pretty snide. MSP is the 16th largest metropolitan area in the US, with a population of 3.7 million people. It also serves as the international gateway hub for at least a 5 state area with a combined population of over an additional 5 million (excluding eastern WI). Your question itself is somewhat valid if you live somewhere else but the snottiness in your tone belies some other grudge you must have against the city.
I think most people would agree that metro size is a more useful metric than city size, considering city borders are much more arbitrary. Or do you believe San Francisco is less significant than Columbus, Ohio, because the latter has 100k more people within its city borders?
Hey Daniel. The statistic there is misleading. MSP is a similar size to the Seattle to Denver metros by MSA population. It’s a mid sized air market that is underserved by delta. This has prompted more carries in recent years to come to the market such as Lufthansa and Aer Lingus, and soon to be Ethiopian and Turkish. It does get out sized coverage because this publication is based here, that is true.
Thanks for the heads up. I noticed my original wasn’t showing up on Google Flight or on their website so I had a suspicion they would be canceling the route. My current award flight from AMS-MSP in Jan 2025 is still showing as operated by KLM. I tried calling Virgin Atlantic to see if they could rebook me but they said I would just need to wait till the system prompts the rebook. They couldn’t manually rebook me. Frustrating.
Hi Sue, that’s definitely frustrating! Unfortunately, you will need to wait to get a change/cancellation notice in order to have any hope of Virgin rebooking you. Until then, they won’t have any power to place you on another flight (for example, one of the Delta nonstops).
Having the same issue calling Virgin Atlantic for my award booking on KLM. To this point they have cancelled and rebooked our return flight twice. Each time I have to call to get a refund for my seat selection upgrade and they are just rebooking to a flight that will be cancelled anyways. The first cancel was prior to the announcement. Hoping to get rebooked and not just outright cancelled and stuck with Virgin points that will be hard to use or won’t be able to use!
I booked KLM from AMS-MSP on Oct 30th and used miles and paid for an upgrade to comfort +
I was rebooked on Delta, but no comfort+ and no refund. I tried calling KLM, but they said they could do nothing and to email them. I sent them an email with receipts, but no response. Any ideas?