St . Paul Downtown Airport St . Paul Downtown Airport , also known as Holman Field , is an airport just across the Mississippi River from downtown Saint Paul , Minnesota . It is one of several reliever airport s in the Twin Cities operated by the Metropolitan Airports Commission . The airport has three runways and serves aircraft operated by corporations in the local area , a flight training school and the Minnesota Army National Guard aviation unit , as well as transient general aviation aircraft . The airport is home to an installation of the Minnesota Army National Guard . The Holman Field Administration Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 . History . Holman Field was named for Charles W . " Speed " Holman ( born in 1898 ) , who was a stunt pilot , barnstormer , wing walker , parachutist , airmail pilot , aviation record holder and airline pilot . Born in Bloomington , he was the first pilot hired by Northwest Airways in 1926 . In 1928 , Holman set a world ' s record of 1 , 433 consecutive loops in an airplane in five hours over the St . Paul Airport . He died in an accident during an air show in Omaha in 1931 at the age of 32 . During World War II , Northwest Airlines employed up to 5 , 000 people at the site , modifying new B - 24 Liberator bombers , some of which received the highly classified H2X radar , which proved to be an invaluable tool in the European theater . The terminal was used as a backdrop for scenes in the 1972 film " Slaughterhouse - Five " . During the 1970s and early 1980s , commuter airline Lake State Airways offered scheduled airline service between the St . Paul Downtown Airport and Minneapolis – St . Paul International Airport in Minnesota . It cost $ 5USD for a one - way ticket between the two airports , and $ 10 round - trip . Capitol Air flew MDW - STP with a Swearingen Metroliner for roughly a year starting December 1993 . Facilities and aircraft . St . Paul Downtown Holman Field covers an area of which contains three asphalt paved runways : 14 / 32 measuring 6 , 491 x 150 ft ( 1 , 978 x 46 m ) , 13 / 31 measuring 4 , 004 x 150 ft ( 1 , 220 x 46 m ) and 9 / 27 measuring 3 , 642 x 100 ft ( 1 , 110 x 30 m ) . For the 12 - month period ending August 31 , 2006 , the airport had 158 , 783 aircraft operations , an average of 435 per day : 92 % general aviation , 5 % military and 3 % air taxi . There are 122 aircraft based at this airport : 29 % military , 28 % jet , 26 % single - engine , 12 % multi - engine and 5 % helicopter . Flood wall considerations . Recently local debate has ensued over plans to build a flood wall around the airport . In 1993 , 1997 , and 2001 , the airport was flooded due to its proximity to the Mississippi River . Supporters do not want to deal with the future inconvenience of having to deal with the flood again , while critics say that the proposed wall would ruin views and make the airport " ugly " . A dike to protect the airport from the nearby river was considered since the National Guard stated that they may leave if the dike is not constructed in a timely manner . In 2009 , a removable flood wall was installed that is only erected when flooding is imminent , leaving the views of the river intact for the rest of the year . Steel plates are embedded in the concrete on the river side of the runways . The flood wall is composed of steel posts that anchor to the embedded plates and aluminum planks that are stacked between the posts to form a flood barrier . These are then removed and stored when the flood event has passed .