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NovakOmaha wrote:The sea change at Eppley has been amazing. Not too long ago OMA had 16 destinations and none were on any coast.

Agreed. Eppley has always been a solid airport and from its passenger rate historically, has punched well above it’s weight compared to similar sized and some larger population metro’s..

But today, Eppley seems to have really come into its own in comparison..

Good for OMA and good for the region ...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

NovakOmaha wrote:As always this is MY OPINION only

Boston via Southwest with Delta as a longshot

BWI via Southwest, possibly Allegiant

Dulles via United

JFK is a bigger longshot but maybe via United or Delta

Ft Lauderdale via Frontier or Southwest

New Orleans and Nashville possibly via Southwest. As I said, just for fun

The sea change at Eppley has been amazing. Not too long ago OMA had 16 destinations and none were on any coast.

Ryan Air wrote:Boston (JetBlue or American)
Ft Lauderdale (JetBlue)
BNA (Southwest)
Can Cun (Frontier seasonal and Southwest Saturday seasonal)
Guadalajara (Volaris)
BWI (Southwest)

My predictions based off of above:
Boston - 80% likely. Maybe Jetblue E-190 or Delta E-170. A Southwest 737 could work seasonally only in the summer months. (Delta most likely here)
BWI - 70% likely Southwest. Service to DCA already...BWI could still happen though.
Dulles - United. Who knows how likely, this should have been added 10 years ago. This is the last major hole out of all the 3 network carriers and service to all their hubs. This would be a great add and long overdue.
JFK - 20% likely (Jetblue)
FLL - 30% likely...maybe seasonal 2x weekly on F9 or Allegiant could work.
New Orleans - 40% likely. very seasonal 2x weekly on Allegiant maybe.
Cancun - 100% likely but need customs facility but seasonal weekly or 2x weekly on Frontier, Allegiant, Southwest and/or Delta are all possible.
Guadalajara - 0.1% likely. No way.
Nashville(BNA) - 90% likely on Southwest. If southwest doesn't do it, Onejet will I would guess.
If Onejet succeeds to MKE, look for them to possibly add cities like Indy, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati or Nashville (Assuming southwest hasn't added it)

I think jetblue is a long shot, but hey these days anything is possible.

joleo wrote:

NovakOmaha wrote:As always this is MY OPINION only

Boston via Southwest with Delta as a longshot

BWI via Southwest, possibly Allegiant

Dulles via United

JFK is a bigger longshot but maybe via United or Delta

Ft Lauderdale via Frontier or Southwest

New Orleans and Nashville possibly via Southwest. As I said, just for fun

The sea change at Eppley has been amazing. Not too long ago OMA had 16 destinations and none were on any coast.

Ryan Air wrote:Boston (JetBlue or American)
Ft Lauderdale (JetBlue)
BNA (Southwest)
Can Cun (Frontier seasonal and Southwest Saturday seasonal)
Guadalajara (Volaris)
BWI (Southwest)

My predictions based off of above:
Boston - 80% likely. Maybe Jetblue E-190 or Delta E-170. A Southwest 737 could work seasonally only in the summer months. (Delta most likely here)
BWI - 70% likely Southwest. Service to DCA already...BWI could still happen though.
Dulles - United. Who knows how likely, this should have been added 10 years ago. This is the last major hole out of all the 3 network carriers and service to all their hubs. This would be a great add and long overdue.
JFK - 20% likely (Jetblue)
FLL - 30% likely...maybe seasonal 2x weekly on F9 or Allegiant could work.
New Orleans - 40% likely. very seasonal 2x weekly on Allegiant maybe.
Cancun - 100% likely but need customs facility but seasonal weekly or 2x weekly on Frontier, Allegiant, Southwest and/or Delta are all possible.
Guadalajara - 0.1% likely. No way.
Nashville(BNA) - 90% likely on Southwest. If southwest doesn't do it, Onejet will I would guess.
If Onejet succeeds to MKE, look for them to possibly add cities like Indy, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati or Nashville (Assuming southwest hasn't added it)

Last time I fly Can Cun, airport had Preclearance. No customs needed at OMA.
A birdy told me Volaris is adding slots and service out of Guadalajara like it’s going out of style.
Jet Blue is inside the realm of possibility. Especially since they have had focus on expanding in the middle of the country and recieving orders

Ryan Air wrote: Last time I fly Can Cun, airport had Preclearance. No customs needed at OMA.
A birdy told me Volaris is adding slots and service out of Guadalajara like it’s going out of style.
Jet Blue is inside the realm of possibility. Especially since they have had focus on expanding in the middle of the country and recieving orders

Sorry Ryan Air, there is no pre-clearance in Mexico currently and there never has been. It has been discussed for 10+ years but the big hold up was mexico having to change their constitution to allow US border patrol agents to carry guns on Mexico soil. I think that has happened now but from what I was told, this all came to a standstill when Trump was elected and US-Mexico relations changed. I really haven't heard much on it for the past year and I can't find any articles that are less than a year old.

Per this article, Mexico City was going to be the 1st pre-clearance airport in Mexico but that hasn't happened yet.
https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/u ... e-program/

We recently flew nonstop from Omaha to MIA. Just under three hours flight time. Great to leave the cold and three hours later be in the tropics.
As an added bonus, our plane from Omaha to MIA was also our plane to Key West.

I have been disappointed in Allegiant's change of schedule. They have moved to Wed - Sat flights to St Pete. The Saturday Flight doesn't get into St Pete until late afternoon on Sat, so you lose half the weekend. There use to be Friday night flight - Monday afternoon flight which gave me the opportunity to fly down for a weekend and only miss one day of work and spend the whole weekend with family.

Per Channel 6 WOWT News:

Omaha Airport Authority announced Tuesday that Delta will be adding two daily departure flights from Omaha to LaGuardia in July.

http://www.wowt.com/content/news/Delta- ... 28233.html

choke wrote:Per Channel 6 WOWT News:

Omaha Airport Authority announced Tuesday that Delta will be adding two daily departure flights from Omaha to LaGuardia in July.

http://www.wowt.com/content/news/Delta- ... 28233.html

Ok. Somebody needs to send the entire payroll of WOWT back to journalism class. Delta is adding a SECOND daily nonstop flight. Did no one at wowt even read the tweet? Did no one at wowt read the story in the owh? Does no one at wowt know how to read? They are embarrassing themselves.

NovakOmaha wrote:

choke wrote:Per Channel 6 WOWT News:

Omaha Airport Authority announced Tuesday that Delta will be adding two daily departure flights from Omaha to LaGuardia in July.

http://www.wowt.com/content/news/Delta- ... 28233.html

Ok. Somebody needs to send the entire payroll of WOWT back to journalism class. Delta is adding a SECOND daily nonstop flight. Did no one at wowt even read the tweet? Did no one at wowt read the story in the owh? Does no one at wowt know how to read? They are embarrassing themselves.

Looks like you have discovered some FAKE NEWS

NovakOmaha wrote: Ok. Somebody needs to send the entire payroll of WOWT back to journalism class. Delta is adding a SECOND daily nonstop flight. Did no one at wowt even read the tweet? Did no one at wowt read the story in the owh? Does no one at wowt know how to read? They are embarrassing themselves.

KETV had an equally cringe-worthy story on their 6 p.m. news that seemingly implied this was a brand new route. The fact that both botched it while it isn't a great sign for local journalism implies to me that both got a poorly worded press release from the airport and or Delta.

Mr.Nuke wrote:

NovakOmaha wrote: Ok. Somebody needs to send the entire payroll of WOWT back to journalism class. Delta is adding a SECOND daily nonstop flight. Did no one at wowt even read the tweet? Did no one at wowt read the story in the owh? Does no one at wowt know how to read? They are embarrassing themselves.

KETV had an equally cringe-worthy story on their 6 p.m. news that seemingly implied this was a brand new route. The fact that both botched it while it isn't a great sign for local journalism implies to me that both got a poorly worded press release from the airport and or Delta.

An entirely plausable thought. However, wowt also posted that Detroit lost to Tampa last Sunday. I know that everyone is entitled to a mistake now & then. On the other hand, news organizations have a special responsibility to get it right. People rely on them for information. The Delta story isn't earth shaking news and if anything they did get the airline & city names right. The football story I have my doubts that they got a wrongly written press release. It just points out that someone isn't pushing them to get it right.

Now if they would only upgrade that route to real full-size planes!

What is even more telling is that wowt posted the original story at 3:26pm and updated it at 7:55pm and still didn't correct it. Granted it wasn't the biggest story of the day but still...

Speaking of Eppley...

https://www.facebook.com/OMAairport/pho ... =3&theater

It's from the Eppley Facebook page. It's a photo of construction of the new terminal in 1985. Shows the old terminal and the new one under construction. I remember that.

Wait... the current terminals are only 32 years old?

Why does the Eppley Airfield Facebook page only have 400 or so followers when a city like Des Moines have over 6,000 followers on their airport facebook page? Eppley does a good job of updating their facebook page with news except hardly anybody follows it! Eppley really needs to work on this.

Any ideas here on why?

joleo wrote:Why does the Eppley Airfield Facebook page only have 400 or so followers when a city like Des Moines have over 6,000 followers on their airport facebook page? Eppley does a good job of updating their facebook page with news except hardly anybody follows it! Eppley really needs to work on this.

Any ideas here on why?

This thread alone has over 102,000 views and some great content.

I’d like to think most people who need news/updates on Eppley Airfield, follow this thread on our site.. As opposed to Facebook ...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

joleo wrote:Why does the Eppley Airfield Facebook page only have 400 or so followers when a city like Des Moines have over 6,000 followers on their airport facebook page? Eppley does a good job of updating their facebook page with news except hardly anybody follows it! Eppley really needs to work on this.

Any ideas here on why?

Eppley had several FB pages- none were official until this year. A few months back, in fact. It now the official has the “check mark” and they’re working on getting the other 2 down.

Re my last post: I believe I confused Can Cun with Aruba. I did check and AUA does have Preclearance

NovakOmaha wrote:The sea change at Eppley has been amazing. Not too long ago OMA had 16 destinations and none were on any coast.

♪...Up, up, up and awayyyyy...Eighty flights a dayyyy...♫

joleo wrote:Why does the Eppley Airfield Facebook page only have 400 or so followers when a city like Des Moines have over 6,000 followers on their airport facebook page? Eppley does a good job of updating their facebook page with news except hardly anybody follows it! Eppley really needs to work on this.

Any ideas here on why?

I for one was completely unaware of the official page. It just gained a follower tho!

joleo wrote:Why does the Eppley Airfield Facebook page only have 400 or so followers when a city like Des Moines have over 6,000 followers on their airport facebook page? Eppley does a good job of updating their facebook page with news except hardly anybody follows it! Eppley really needs to work on this.

Any ideas here on why?

If Heath Mello would have been elected mayor, in addition to Eppley becoming an intergalactic spaceport, their Facebook page would have gained hundreds of thousands of new followers.

OmahaJaysCU wrote:

joleo wrote:Why does the Eppley Airfield Facebook page only have 400 or so followers when a city like Des Moines have over 6,000 followers on their airport facebook page? Eppley does a good job of updating their facebook page with news except hardly anybody follows it! Eppley really needs to work on this.

Any ideas here on why?

I for one was completely unaware of the official page. It just gained a follower tho!

I just recently started following. They actually post some really cool historic photos every once in a while.

OneJet is starting a route between KC and Memphis with a 30 seat plane. Obviously we only have Milwaukee, but the company seems to be in rapid growth mode and its nice to be in on the ground floor.

November numbers are out.

+6.3% for the month, +6% for the year.

The only downside was United, down 6.2% for the month but still up 10% for the year.

My last projection of 2017: 4,650,000

NovakOmaha wrote:November numbers are out.

+6.3% for the month, +6% for the year.

The only downside was United, down 6.2% for the month but still up 10% for the year.

My last projection of 2017: 4,650,000

Very good!!!

I'm planning a trip overseas in 2018 and it got me thinking about some things.. I am planning to fly into a big hub airport, but from there I can fly anywhere in Europe on EasyJet for under $100 round trip (my flight is closer to $60). I love the ease and the affordability that EasyJet brings. I know airlines are getting more affordable here, but honestly they still have a ways to go before they can compete.

NovakOmaha wrote:November numbers are out.

+6.3% for the month, +6% for the year.

The only downside was United, down 6.2% for the month but still up 10% for the year.

My last projection of 2017: 4,650,000

Excellent increase..

I’m going to go ahead and predict 4.7 million passengers for OMA in 2017...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

I found this the other day. It's pretty interesting if you're an Eppley nerd. Check out page 21. You'll see what I think is the next step in the expansion of the terminal.

https://www.flyoma.com/images/pdfs/OMA% ... Notice.pdf

NovakOmaha wrote:I found this the other day. It's pretty interesting if you're an Eppley nerd. Check out page 21. You'll see what I think is the next step in the expansion of the terminal.

https://www.flyoma.com/images/pdfs/OMA% ... Notice.pdf

Good info. Thanks for posting ...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

That render, albeit lacking details, looks pretty slick.

NovakOmaha wrote:I found this the other day. It's pretty interesting if you're an Eppley nerd. Check out page 21. You'll see what I think is the next step in the expansion of the terminal.

https://www.flyoma.com/images/pdfs/OMA% ... Notice.pdf

Ryan Air posted the same link several months ago a few pages back.
http://eomahaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 40#p280918

Mr.Nuke wrote:

NovakOmaha wrote:I found this the other day. It's pretty interesting if you're an Eppley nerd. Check out page 21. You'll see what I think is the next step in the expansion of the terminal.

https://www.flyoma.com/images/pdfs/OMA% ... Notice.pdf

Ryan Air posted the same link several months ago a few pages back.
http://eomahaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 40#p280918

Thanks. I didn't really try to look to see if it was posted before.
By the way, I'm going to revise my estimate of total numbers for the year down to 4.6 million. 4.65 and 4.7 would put a lot of pressure on December to deliver huge numbers. Hey, if I'm wrong so much the better.

So based on what little I know of air traffic, Eppley should be sufficiently long enough to support take off/landing of 747 aircraft. I don't think we are near the passenger threshold to warrant such large aircraft in and out of there, but it should at least be possible, right?

thenewguy wrote:So based on what little I know of air traffic, Eppley should be sufficiently long enough to support take off/landing of 747 aircraft. I don't think we are near the passenger threshold to warrant such large aircraft in and out of there, but it should at least be possible, right?

Large aircraft like the 747 are being cut out of the industry more and more. With smaller, more efficient planes like the 737, airlines are choosing to have a larger number of direct destinations rather than exclusively following the hub and spoke approach. This is how most budget airlines operate as southwest uses exclusively 737’s. Omaha won’t ever have 747’s as most airlines have already eliminated the aircraft from their fleet. It’s s just simply cheaper to operate more small twin engine planes than a few large 4 engine 747’s

buildomaha wrote:

thenewguy wrote:So based on what little I know of air traffic, Eppley should be sufficiently long enough to support take off/landing of 747 aircraft. I don't think we are near the passenger threshold to warrant such large aircraft in and out of there, but it should at least be possible, right?

Large aircraft like the 747 are being cut out of the industry more and more. With smaller, more efficient planes like the 737, airlines are choosing to have a larger number of direct destinations rather than exclusively following the hub and spoke approach. This is how most budget airlines operate as southwest uses exclusively 737’s. Omaha won’t ever have 747’s as most airlines have already eliminated the aircraft from their fleet. It’s s just simply cheaper to operate more small twin engine planes than a few large 4 engine 747’s

An article that should explain it better than my unprofessional attempt:

https://skift.com/2014/06/13/the-747-is ... -prove-it/

thenewguy wrote:So based on what little I know of air traffic, Eppley should be sufficiently long enough to support take off/landing of 747 aircraft. I don't think we are near the passenger threshold to warrant such large aircraft in and out of there, but it should at least be possible, right?

The above is correct regarding the large wide nobody aircraft. Airline profitability factors make these wide bodies less and less common. 737 max, 787 and A350’s are more and more common and the jumbos are nearly gone from US carriers. The last one in service of any carrier just completed its last flight this month (Delta)

But you are also correct, Eppley has a runway which could handle basically any aircraft... as evident by the 747 that brought the elephants and the Qatar 777 this year that brought in the horses. We’ve even had the Antonov land and takeoff here.

Even an A380 could land here... however!!! And it’s a big one, OMA only has a few taxiways which could handle that weight and that wingspan... maybe even one ramp? (cargo area). heck, a BA A380 made an emergency landing at MSP and had few areas the aircraft could go. JFK has ristructions (most airports do have special taxiway procedures for Heavies and “supers”) for that aircraft too. My point: yes, with restrictions.

So while OMA runways may be within the limitations of a particular aircrafts, there could be taxiways restrictions.
For sure no gate accommodations.

NovakOmaha wrote:

Mr.Nuke wrote:

NovakOmaha wrote:I found this the other day. It's pretty interesting if you're an Eppley nerd. Check out page 21. You'll see what I think is the next step in the expansion of the terminal.

https://www.flyoma.com/images/pdfs/OMA% ... Notice.pdf

Ryan Air posted the same link several months ago a few pages back.
http://eomahaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 40#p280918

Thanks. I didn't really try to look to see if it was posted before.
By the way, I'm going to revise my estimate of total numbers for the year down to 4.6 million. 4.65 and 4.7 would put a lot of pressure on December to deliver huge numbers. Hey, if I'm wrong so much the better.

I’d say you’re pretty right on. 4,240,625 is YTD through November. December 2016 was 349,193. With no change we’re looking at 4.58 million. I’m guessing December was strong with a 7% growth or higher. 373,000 or so, making it just over 4.6 million. Secretly crossing fingers for 4.65 million.

thenewguy wrote:So based on what little I know of air traffic, Eppley should be sufficiently long enough to support take off/landing of 747 aircraft. I don't think we are near the passenger threshold to warrant such large aircraft in and out of there, but it should at least be possible, right?

747s have no prob at Eppley. Go to Airliners.net and fiddle with the search criteria. Most recently United has put a few here when ORD is suffering from severe thunderstorms.

December, 1976 there were a shi tton of 747s flying OMA-HNL, tour groups going to the Husker game with Hawai'i. Braniff's orange "Fat Albert" made at least one trip, and I suspect the rest were United.

In additon to the elephant charter and the 2005 O'Hare storm diversions, other random 747s at Eppley: there was a modified 747 last October from Africa via Washington Dulles for ebola drills with UNMC, a 2009 Delta Honor Flight to Washington D.C. for WWII veterans, Air Force One multiple times, and Offutt's E-4Bs are often at Eppley doing touch and go approach practice.