Smithey also said that they need to update the plan to allow for the current state of affairs, what with airline financial troubles and all.
I would guess that this means tossing out the plan for a 75 gate terminal & focusing on a more feasible addition to the current terminal. You could add gates to the current north and south satellites for a lot less $$, and keep the configuration. Also, there is quite a lot of available space at the ticket counters. Even if we did get service from Airtran, JetBlue, Alaska and Brittish Airways, there would be ticket counters and gates available.
I'd love to see upper & lower roads to split drop off & pickup, but its really ok.
By the way, take a look at the Oklahoma City and Tulsa airports web sites. They both did major remodeling projects and both look great. In addition, according to the OWH story both OKC & TUL trail OMA in passenger loads. Nice airports tho.
They may have be bigger cities, but I think that speaks to how potent Omaha's punch is in the tier of cities. Even with Lincoln's airport were still 200,000 people ahead of OKC.
For total passengers, Omaha has a history of drawing larger annual airline passengers than both Oklahoma City and Tulsa..Albeit with OKC, they are really choked off by DFW being one of the largest and busiest hub airports in the US..
And I agree with Novak..Most likely down the line, a modified version of Eppley expansion is probably in the works..I don't see OMA with 75-80 passenger gates in our lifetimes at least..40 to 45 is realistically likely (up from the current 21)..
I was looking at an aerial pic of the airport last nite & there is room to expand the south sattelite farther south. You could add 6 gates easily. I really believe that 6 extra gates would serve eppley well for years to come. Given the current state of affairs in the industry I just don't see Omaha drawing a hub...heck KC tried it 3 times & couldnt make a go of it.
I'd like to hear what FlyOma has to say about this.
I would like to see a plan for Eppley that had 75-80 gates. I'm not sure there is enough space on the west side to put that many. A while back I sent an image of a master plan that had about 45 gates all on the east side of the terminal. To get to 75-80 gates there would need to be gates on both sides of the terminal, something like Detroit:
Keep the old runway as a parallel taxiway and expand the ramp to fit. The drawback to this is that it shrinks the amount of land at the northeast corner of the airport that could be used as a maintenance facility if we want to become an airlines hub.
75-80 gates! I would like to see expansion as much as anyone else, but who is going to use all these gates? You need to have some sort of hub to accomadate that many gates and unfortunately due to the state of the airline industry, this is not a scenario of "if you build it they will come".
I have to agree with Novak, 6 gates could handle traffic for years, even decades. There are still gates empty at the airport, even the ones currently being used aren't being fully utilized. How many gates sit open for hours upon a time during the day?
Let's shoot for a few more gates and maybe a "modernization" of the terminal. I could sure go for some place to eat that is inside security. Maybe move security somewhere in that vast space of nothing on the second floor, so you can go to Pauli's without having to go back through security when your flight is delayed.
When Omaha passes the 4 million passenger mark this year enroute to 5 million..I have little doubt in the end, we'll see a modest but significant expansion at Eppley Airfield..Most likely 6 to 20 more gates..
75-80 gates? That was part of the OAA masterplan first announced back in 1998..Masterplans are what they are..More conceptual than 'real'..Kind of like the old Casey Cassum AT40 addage 'keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars'..
pkiphd Eppley could call itself "Eppley International" if it wanted to. It meets the requirements having a customs office of its own. Fortunately Eppley administration realizes that an airport should only call itself "international" if it actually has daily commercial flights to and from international destinations. Otherwise it would look as silly as 'Des Moines International'.
All I will say is when it keeps on coming up with numerous Omaha people that are concerned that Eppley doesn't have international in its name, that it must be one of those chamber of commerce issues that bug certain people.
We can debate the merits of having International Airport or 'Airfield' in your airports' name all day, it comes down to preference. Unless we're talking about the 'airfield' in North Platte, I would prefer International Airport if it meets the technical qualifications of an international airport previously set by the FAA.
Here's a good one - The Governor Preston Smith Lubbock International Airport (the Lubbock airport's new name). Can't get much longer than that one!
Eppley is fine with me, international or not.
Lubbock has a customs office because the ship cotton to other countries - not scheduled flights. I would think Eppley does some international non-scheduled flights also but I doubt that the name would make much difference to anyone who flies in.
Yeah, Ryan, but about the time Eppley adds International to its name Des Moines will get something else, like the World Food Prize headquarters or a Cheesecake Factory or a really cool science center or something and then we'll want that.
We better stick to Eppley Airfield.
Next thing you know Iowa will have its caucuses first....
But hey, we got...ummm...we got....well we got something.
Sheesh. I still insist that we call the airport Eppley-Omaha-Eastern Nebraska-Western Iowa-Metro-Intergalactic-Worldport!
I am also partial to Eppley International Energetic Interplanetary Omaha- Transportation And Destination Area. EIEIO-TADA
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i could care less about the name as long as we get more direct flights
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Boy, that's the truth. Call it Monkey's Butt Flyin' Wagon Park for all I care as long as I can get to Vegas in under four hours.
But Cowboy is right. As Omahans demonstrate a need for more flights in and out, the airlines will notice. As the number of direct flights - both in volume and variety of destinations - increase, it becomes that much easier to attract big name events and conventions, and thusly the snowball effect begins.
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