Omaha Airport numbers continue to sizzle for 2005..

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Sun May 22, 2005 3:22 pm

The latest numbers thru April/05 from eppleyairfield.com:

Total passengers thru 04/05: 1,271,528
Total passengers thru 04/04: 1,164,239

107,289 more passengers this year compared to the record year of 2004. a 9.2% increase..

Here's to SMASHING the 2004 record and blazing beyond 4 million passengers for 2005..

..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

OmahaDevelopmentMan · Post by **OmahaDevelopmentMan** » Sun May 22, 2005 5:00 pm

Maybe the magic 5 million mark isn't as far away as we think...

sokkerdewd · Post by **sokkerdewd** » Sun May 22, 2005 7:18 pm

With a 9% growth rate, that "5 mil mark" will be passed in 3 short years.

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Mon May 23, 2005 12:21 am

sokkerdewd wrote:With a 9% growth rate, that "5 mil mark" will be passed in 3 short years.

And then we can talk seriously about those Eppley plans for expansion

..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

flyOMA · Post by **flyOMA** » Mon May 23, 2005 1:42 am

Another thing to consider is the America West/US Airways merger and how it will effect us. I think Omaha is in a select group of cities that will actually GAIN service out of this deal. Under the US Airways brand, obviously Phoenix service will continue...However, connecting the dots to East Coast hubs is an almost guarantee. The question is, which? The possibilities are Charlottle, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and LaGuardia. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh has been tried 3 times in the past and never really worked. My money is on Charlottle and Philadelphia with 50-70 passenger Regional Jets, as well as flights to Las Vegas to put the squeeze on Southwest (which is the main intent of this merger). A surprise possibility could be seasonal or weekly flights to Ft. Lauderdale. I say this because there has been some interest in the past to establish this route with an un-named airline (most likely Delta Express), but 9/11 changed those plans.

Also some more expansion notes. Frontier is back to ALL Airbus aircraft, 4x daily and no longer operates the smaller 50 passenger Regional Jets between here and Denver.

American Airlines will be adding 2 mainline MD-80 aircraft between here and O'Hare, along with the Regional Jets that have operated on this route for almost 10 years...This brings the total flights between Omaha and O'Hare to 7x daily on American alone (keep in mind Southwest and United, collectively operate 15 flights/day between them to the Chicago area already).

United Airlines (after a 5 year absence) is now operating 200-seat 757 aircraft back into Omaha to both Chicago and Denver, muliple times/day.

4 million is history this year.

Asten · Post by **Asten** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:15 am

flyOMA wrote:
American Airlines will be adding 2 mainline MD-80 aircraft between here and O'Hare, along with the Regional Jets that have operated on this route for almost 10 years...This brings the total flights between Omaha and O'Hare to 7x daily on American alone (keep in mind Southwest and United, collectively operate 15 flights/day between them to the Chicago area already).

United Airlines (after a 5 year absence) is now operating 200-seat 757 aircraft back into Omaha to both Chicago and Denver, muliple times/day.

4 million is history this year.

FlyOma - Cool! Where do you get this info? I've been in Chicago just over 5 years now, so I'd love to know more about the AA thing in particular (i'm 6'4" - those regionaljets are painful!). However - United has flown 757s a lot more recently than 5 years ago - I used to fly that route all the time on 757s. IIRC, it was not reduced to the current 737s until after Sept 11th.

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Mon May 23, 2005 3:56 pm

Great info flyOMA..

Thanks

..

FYI-I believe flyOMA is an air traffic controller Asten. He always has good general and Omaha airline/airport 'scoop' information..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

CountOfMC · Post by **CountOfMC** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:17 pm

Damn, Eppley is on fire. Too bad I don't fly out of there enough to see all the new hustle and bustle.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:26 pm

Omaha Cowboy wrote: FYI-I believe flyOMA is an air traffic controller

Sounds like a whole lot of fun. Too bad no tours of the tower

Post by **Brad** » Tue May 24, 2005 10:52 am

Unfortunately as of right now I will not get to help "boost" the passanger numbers this year

Post by **Coyote** » Wed May 25, 2005 3:38 pm

FlyOma et al - how will Northwest's bankruptcy problems affect Omaha?

NovakOmaha · Post by **NovakOmaha** » Wed May 25, 2005 4:44 pm

flyOMA wrote:Another thing to consider is the America West/US Airways merger and how it will effect us. I think Omaha is in a select group of cities that will actually GAIN service out of this deal. Under the US Airways brand, obviously Phoenix service will continue...However, connecting the dots to East Coast hubs is an almost guarantee. The question is, which? The possibilities are Charlottle, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and LaGuardia. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh has been tried 3 times in the past and never really worked. My money is on Charlottle and Philadelphia with 50-70 passenger Regional Jets, as well as flights to Las Vegas to put the squeeze on Southwest (which is the main intent of this merger). A surprise possibility could be seasonal or weekly flights to Ft. Lauderdale. I say this because there has been some interest in the past to establish this route with an un-named airline (most likely Delta Express), but 9/11 changed those plans.

Also some more expansion notes. Frontier is back to ALL Airbus aircraft, 4x daily and no longer operates the smaller 50 passenger Regional Jets between here and Denver.

American Airlines will be adding 2 mainline MD-80 aircraft between here and O'Hare, along with the Regional Jets that have operated on this route for almost 10 years...This brings the total flights between Omaha and O'Hare to 7x daily on American alone (keep in mind Southwest and United, collectively operate 15 flights/day between them to the Chicago area already).

United Airlines (after a 5 year absence) is now operating 200-seat 757 aircraft back into Omaha to both Chicago and Denver, muliple times/day.

4 million is history this year.

From what I've been reading, the Charlotte hub is questionable under the merger. Philly is an international gateway, and a huge one for USAirways. I'd bet on OMA-PHL service, if there is any expansion. Interesting about the FLL route. That airport is growing like a weed, and is becoming more popular than MIA, though MIA is still the South American gateway of choice.

FlyOMA? Any news on LUV's expansion here? BWI, LAX, TPA, etc.? I even heard a little rumor about OMA-SEA. Anything in the pipeline?
I'm not betting on JetBlue any time soon, nor Alaska. I could be wrong tho.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Wed May 25, 2005 5:41 pm

What cities are MIA, BWI, and TPA?

OmahaDevelopmentMan · Post by **OmahaDevelopmentMan** » Wed May 25, 2005 5:46 pm

DTO Luv wrote:What cities are MIA, BWI, and TPA?

I think Miami and Tampa, but I don't know BWI.

jjjjhskr · Post by **jjjjhskr** » Wed May 25, 2005 5:48 pm

Baltimore-Washington International

flyOMA · Post by **flyOMA** » Wed May 25, 2005 6:36 pm

I wouldn't count on any new airlines this year, although it certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility. The growth at Eppley will be primarily with incumbent carriers adding new routes and adding capacity to existing routes.

JetBlue will not serve Omaha until their Embraer 190 jets are delivered. Even then, Omaha will still have to wait in line. There are midwestern cities higher in the pecking order than Omaha. That is not to say that JFK-OMA wouldn't be profitable, but considering JetBlue currently has NO presence in the midwest, you have to believe that they will start with the Chicago's and Kansas City's before venturing into the secondary markets like Omaha, Louisville, Oklahoma City, etc.

As far as Southwest expansion, your guess is as good as mine. Southwest is usually very tight-lipped when it comes to expansion (with the exception of the Omaha to Orlando service). If there is going to be more expansion, BWI has to be the number one possibility. This route has been speculated for years...Why it hasn't happened is a mystery, they would make a killing on this route. If it does happen, there is a very good possibility that there could be *3* carriers operating from Omaha to the D.C. area: Midwest (which has been the traditional carrier), Northwest (which has been expanding point-to-point service from midwestern cities), and Southwest. Personally, I think that would over-saturate the city pair and wouldn't be very profitable for Midwest and Northwest in the long-run, since history has shown that Southwest 9/10 will beat any airline on any given city-pair.

Dark Eyes · Post by **Dark Eyes** » Tue May 31, 2005 5:47 pm

I'm glad to see the larger aircraft making a return to Omaha, e.g. the American MD-80s and Frontier's Airbus jets. Perhaps Continental and Delta will follow suit.

Regional jets say "small market", so the fewer of those we get, the better.

jjjjhskr · Post by **jjjjhskr** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:49 am

flyOMA wrote: American Airlines will be adding 2 mainline MD-80 aircraft between here and O'Hare, along with the Regional Jets that have operated on this route for almost 10 years...This brings the total flights between Omaha and O'Hare to 7x daily on American alone (keep in mind Southwest and United, collectively operate 15 flights/day between them to the Chicago area already).
.

From American Airlines - They will add one MD80 between O'Hare and Omaha starting 8/23, they will still have 5 regional jets at that time and hopefully a 2nd MD80 will follow as FlyOmaha states above. It appears that they are replacing one of the regional jets with the MD80 and decreasing reg. jets daily from 6 to 5 for a total of 6 daily flights. Still a nice win to change from RJ's to MD80's.

New Nonstop Routes Within the United States

Origin City Destination City Date Operated by

Boston Logan, MA (BOS) New Orleans, LA (MSY) 10/1/2005
Chicago O'Hare, IL (ORD) Colorado Springs, CO (COS) 6/09/2005
Chicago O'Hare, IL (ORD) Jacksonville, FL (JAX) 6/09/2005
Chicago O'Hare, IL (ORD) Lexington, KY (LEX) 5/01/2005
Chicago O'Hare, IL (ORD) Omaha, NE (OMA) 8/23/2005
Chicago O'Hare, IL (ORD) Pensacola, FL (PNS) 6/09/2005

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:44 am

Excellent news!..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

jjjjhskr · Post by **jjjjhskr** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 11:27 am

From an article in today's Wall Street Journal titled "Northwest Bets on Hinterlands for Survival"

"A senior Northwest executive has been assigned to each of the top seven targets in the heartland strategy: Indianapolis; Milwaukeel Madison; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Omaha, Neb. The executives visit their towns every frew months to call on travel agencies, corporate accoutns, Northwest employees and the local newspaper or Chamber of Commerce."

The article describes NW's strategy of developing its heartland routes to help stave off competition and notes that NW will be adding more point to point flights between cities in the region instead of having all flights go to their 3 hubs. This should bode well for more direct flights out of Eppley.

Maybe someone else can add to this discussion.

UNOstudent · Post by **UNOstudent** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 11:47 am

nwa has 26 destinations from indianapolis and 16 from milwaukee so that gives us something to look at for the future.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 12:00 pm

I wonder if the WSJ would refer to Warren Buffet's base of operations as "the Hinterlands"?

Does anyone else feel that Omaha/Eppley is being set-up/tested as a sort-of mini-hub?

-Big E

Omaha Forums

Omaha Airport numbers continue to sizzle for 2005..

Omaha Airport numbers continue to sizzle for 2005..

Northwest - Wall Street Journal article