Voyageurs National Park is primarily served by two airports: Falls International Airport and Minneapolis Airport. Travelers flying on United can add the nearby Duluth airport to the list (which is accessed via a connection in Chicago).
If you are planning a summer vacation to Voyageurs, you should start shopping for your cheap tickets early. You may have better luck finding an affordable flight into International Falls (the gateway to the park) a few months in advance rather than waiting to book your airline ticket right before your trip (due to the lack of competition).
The appeal of Voyageurs is its remote, north woods feeling. So it should not be a surprise that there is not a major metropolitan area and airport nearby. Nevertheless, access to Voyageurs is no different than Yellowstone National Park which almost always requires at least a short road trip to get to it. In fact, for many, the Voyageurs National Park airport options are better than Yellowstone since International Falls is closer than Jackson and Minneapolis is close than Salt Lake City.
Here are the closest airports in the United States to Voyageurs National Park:
International Falls Airport – 14 miles
Falls International Airport (INL) is just west of the Rainy Lake Visitor Center and provides daily commercial flights to Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport. Delta and Skywest serve the airport. Avis offers car rentals on-site. The airport also has free parking and free wifi.
Duluth Airport – 160 miles
Duluth International Airport is 160 miles south of International Falls – it takes approximately three hours to reach the park from there. Delta flies to/from Duluth via Minneapolis. United Express flies to/from Duluth via Chicago. Given the 7 hour drive to Duluth from a connecting flight in Chicago, it probably makes sense to make the additional connection. However, before you decide to fly from Minneapolis to Duluth, consider your options to fly straight to International Falls from Minneapolis.
Fargo Airport – 245 miles
Hector International Airport is the busiest airport in North Dakota (around 900,000 passengers fly through the airport every year) and is located three miles northwest of Fargo. It is located southwest of the national park just over four hours from International Falls. It is served by Delta from Minneapolis and United from Denver. It does not make sense to fly into Fargo if you have to fly through Minneapolis, but it might offer a cheaper often if you can connect through Denver.
Minneapolis Airport – 300 miles
The Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport is 5 hours south of the park on I-35 and Highway 53. MSP is served by Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, Spirit and United in Terminal 1 as well as Frontier, jetBlue and Southwest at Terminal 2 (among others).
Other Airports – Winnipeg Airport
If you are flying into the area from Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba is four hours northwest of International Falls. The Winnipeg airport is the seventh busiest airport in Canada serving around 4.5 million passengers per year. It served more than 38 million passengers in 2018 making it the 17th busiest airport in North America based on the number of passengers.