Power to the passengers!

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport will soon debut the first of more than 1,000 seats with electrical outlets, designed for travelers who need to recharge phones or laptops.

Although power poles and table plugs are already available at MSP, “It’s the first time we’ve provided power seating,” said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which operates the airport.

MSP officials aren’t calling it a technological leap — more like an upgrade to help ease the headaches of travel, a little.

“Sometimes, what seems like little services — such as power — can go a long way toward making people have a better experience when they’re waiting for their flight,” Hogan said. “Especially today, when everybody has a cellphone, everybody has a laptop. It’s simply what customers are demanding.”

Over the past decade, MSP and the airlines have gradually upgraded terminal plug-in abilities, as power-hungry electronic devices such as smartphones and iPads have grown from occasional to universal.

“What we’ve seen is, every time we put in power and seating, people tend to use it,” said Alan Howell, MSP’s chief architect.

Early on, MSP featured kiosks where vendors would recharge devices for a fee. Then airlines led by Northwest and later Delta began offering free power at certain gates, through shared power-pole charging stations. Today, MSP has 22 power-pole stations scattered throughout its two terminals.

More recently, MSP has added electrical outlets to the seating areas in its dining spots, and Delta added them throughout its G Concourse in Terminal 1.

“It’s something we’ve been incorporating into our design as we change our restaurants, in particular,” Hogan said. “All of the food courts and all of the full-service restaurants have places where you can plug in.”

Now, MSP is taking the next step. Starting in June, it will begin installing power seating in common areas of Terminal 1. That includes inside the mall, at shared gates on Concourse C and in the rental car area.

Airlines control the gate areas, so the upgrade will come at other common areas throughout the terminal.

Next year, MSP hopes to add power seats to the ground-transportation area, the baggage-claim area, and the level overlooking the ticket counters. Upgrades at Terminal 2 also have been discussed.

Howell, the MSP architect, said the new “beam” row of seats will feature a set of three chairs, separated by a table that includes two electrical outlets.

“Not every seat will have power, but there will be power nearby,” Howell said. “So in a set of three (chairs), there will be one table” with two electrical outlets.

In any case, Howell says demand from passengers has been hard to miss, as travelers huddle around electrical outlets to stay plugged in.

“What we look at anecdotally is the number of people sitting on the floor to get power,” Howell said.

Tom Webb can be reached at 651-228-5428. Follow him at twitter.com/TomWebbMN.