Omaha Eppley Airfield - DISCUSSION

[Bearcat06]

Could you imagine Omaha's airport having a layout similar to Jacksonville's old concourse layout? I mean Jacksonville, FL. The one that it had prior to the mid-2000's?

Has anyone here been to the Jacksonville airport, let alone before the mid 2000s?

2007, and that was the last time I walked on the tarmac to board--no jetway. Other than that, I can't tell you a thing about the airport.

Just did that in 2019 at Burbank...no jetways, walk up a ramp or stairway to load from the front and back of the plane. Lesson learned with WN, if your in group A or early B go to the back door, everyone piled into the front like one would normally board.

[Mr.Nuke]

February down 57%, down 57.6% year-to-date.
https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

[skinzfan23]

At some point, probably this summer, you would think the year over year numbers will start to increase from what they were in 2020. Granted, everything was pretty much business as usual until mid-March in 2020.

[OmahaFan]

I’m hoping that there will be a huge increase once everyone has been vaccinated. I think it will take a year for Eppley to recover fully from the Pandemic. I know they started the design work on the new terminal but had it stopped in 2020. So we have that hopefully coming along to make Omaha’s airport more attractive.

[Omababe]

Has anyone here been to the Jacksonville airport, let alone before the mid 2000s?

2007, and that was the last time I walked on the tarmac to board--no jetway. Other than that, I can't tell you a thing about the airport.

Before Covid I would end up flying into Jaxport maybe once a year or so. I was there several times in the early 2000s and I surely do not remember it without jetways.

[LookingGlass]

It has already been pretty busy there the last few weeks. I think a combination of spring break and people getting the vaccine. Lots of full flights. The TSA clocked 1.5 million passengers nationwide the other day with an upward trend.

[damonhynes]

Has anyone here been to the Jacksonville airport, let alone before the mid 2000s?

2007, and that was the last time I walked on the tarmac to board--no jetway. Other than that, I can't tell you a thing about the airport.

Before Covid I would end up flying into Jaxport maybe once a year or so. I was there several times in the early 2000s and I surely do not remember it without jetways.

This was an outfit named ExpressJet, in between contracts with one legacy airline or another they decided to be a Part 121 carrier for about 18 months or so.

I had a wedding to go to in St. Simons, GA, so I was looking for flights to JAX from MCI (this was when there was a large price variation compared to OMA). Imagine my surprise when I found nonstop MCI-JAX! They were very efficient, no problems whatsoever. And stairs onto the tarmac!

[Mr.Nuke]

At some point, probably this summer, you would think the year over year numbers will start to increase from what they were in 2020. Granted, everything was pretty much business as usual until mid-March in 2020.

Yeah things kind of reached an inflection point by Mid-March last year. Based on the TSA screening numbers nationally the same thing is happening this year in reverse. Starting on St. Patrick's day, national numbers have been positive every day over 2020.

As of yesterday 3/23, March nationally is down about 19.7%. That will end up being lower... Based on the average daily margin of 2021 vs 2020 over the past 4 days, March likely ends up roughly flat if not slightly positive (again nationally) vs 3/2020.

Then add in that things really fell off a cliff last year in April. Eppley only had 18,000 passengers and ~52,000 in May. The year-over-year deficit is going to start to get eaten into fairly quickly.

I think it will take a year for Eppley to recover fully from the Pandemic.

This is important to keep in mind too. For all of the talk above about starting to better 2020 numbers, the TSA numbers from March through 3/23 are still off 50% from what they were in 2019.

[Bob from Omaha]

A quick glance at the April Airport Authority agenda brought a couple of items possibly relating to the renovation/expansion of the terminal.

#5. Curious how much Eppley is getting and/or has received.
#7, 8, 9 I'm thinking I heard there will not be upper & lower roads and the drive will be enlarged and will include a portion of the garage. I could be misunderstanding. Perhaps MrNuke could help here.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
OMAHA AIRPORT AUTHORITY
MEETING NOTICE AND AGENDA
DATE: April 13, 2021
This is to advise that there will be a meeting of the Omaha Airport Authority on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. in the Board Room located on the second level of the Terminal Building, Eppley Airfield, Omaha, Nebraska.
The purpose of the meeting is as follows:
1. Roll Call
2. Minutes of the Last Meeting
3. Dr. Joseph C. Stothert – Resolution of Appreciation
4. COVID-19 Update
5. Stimulus Relief – Federal Stimulus (ARPA)
6. Hertz Rental Car – Assignment of Lease
7. Federal Grant – Terminal Entrance Drive and Garage Ramp
8. Award Contract – Terminal Entrance Drive and Garage Ramp
9. Award Contract – South Garage Restoration
10. Personal Injury Claim Settlement
11. Briefing Items
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Bob from Omaha]

On another note, I was at the Detroit Metro Airport North Terminal today and while waiting for what seemed like an hour at the ticket counter I had a chance to notice something.

There are upper and lower roads at both terminals but I noticed that the lower (arrivals) road at the North Terminal isn't directly under the upper (departures) one. Bag claim is under the upper one and the actual drive is outside of that. Take a look at Google Earth. I never noticed that. I don't think Eppley could do that. At the Delta Terminal it's directly under the upper one.

There was talk a long time ago about building a completely new terminal south of the current one. Near Abbott Drive and Locust, northeast corner. At the time it was talked about the owh had a rendering and, are you sitting down?, it included 75 gates. Woof. Lately though I have to say there is a lot more land there than where the terminal is currently and plenty of room for upper and lower roads, a spread out terminal, even a hotel attached.

It won't happen as I would cost way over a billion $ but still....

[Bob from Omaha]

March numbers:
Overall up 14.3% That's the big one but there are a couple of key numbers.

Southwest up +38%
American up 16.7%
United even
Delta down over 8%, and it looks like they moved service from mainline to regionals

Allegiant up double digits, Frontier down single digits, Alaska up by about a third.

Overall, not a bad start to a possible comeback.

[skinzfan23]

Just checked the numbers for Des Moines, they are only up 1.3% for March and down 44.4% for YTD.

[Garrett]

New nonstop to LGA by American starting Nov 2. I believe this is actually a new service and not something from before the pandemic.

[Mr.Nuke]

March numbers:
Overall up 14.3% That's the big one but there are a couple of key numbers.

https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf
Adding the link in case people need to go back to it for whatever reason in the future when Eppley removes it. Down 40.9% YTD. TSA throughput numbers were similar nationally to Eppley for March. For April through 4/20, tsa screened passengers nationwide are up 1258% so as expected the YTD deficit is going to be cut into massively next release.

New nonstop to LGA by American starting Nov 2. I believe this is actually a new service and not something from before the pandemic.

It is new service in that American has not flown the route outside of one-offs for Berkshire Hathaway. However, up until Covid Delta was flying the route with multiple daily frequencies. I'm not sure how far Delta is loading their schedules right now, but a cursory mock booking shows them resuming service in June. It will be interesting to see if there is room for both (three including United at EWR, which also still isn't back yet). AA waiting until November to launch seems really odd if Delta is coming back sooner.

Per KETV, AA to LAX is resuming 5/6. Good to have a another destination returning.

[damonhynes]

March numbers:
Overall up 14.3% That's the big one but there are a couple of key numbers.

https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf
Adding the link in case people need to go back to it for whatever reason in the future when Eppley removes it. Down 40.9% YTD. TSA throughput numbers were similar nationally to Eppley for March. For April through 4/20, tsa screened passengers nationwide are up 1258% so as expected the YTD deficit is going to be cut into massively next release.

New nonstop to LGA by American starting Nov 2. I believe this is actually a new service and not something from before the pandemic.

It is new service in that American has not flown the route outside of one-offs for Berkshire Hathaway. However, up until Covid Delta was flying the route with multiple daily frequencies. I'm not sure how far Delta is loading their schedules right now, but a cursory mock booking shows them resuming service in June. It will be interesting to see if there is room for both (three including United at EWR, which also still isn't back yet). AA waiting until November to launch seems really odd if Delta is coming back sooner.

Per KETV, AA to LAX is resuming 5/6. Good to have a another destination returning.

Light at the end of the tunnel. Big sigh.

[Bob from Omaha]

FYI, KCI just got Jetblue to JFK & Boston. Prior to covid I thought maybe Southwest or someone would pick up the OMA-BOS route. MrNuke can give an analysis on numbers between OMA & Boston. JFK would be nice as it's a gateway.

I would assume Eppley management is keeping OMA in front of Jetblue as they are with the others. I've flown Jetblue and they have nice planes & their fare sales are sometimes competitive with Spirit, though without some of the fees.

[strangerthings]

As we know, Southwest connects passengers from Omaha, Des Moines, Witchita, Tulsa, Little Rock, and OKC through St. Louis. I personally find the STL's terminal 2 to be overcrowded, long, and dated. It is also a backtrack if you are flying west or direct south.

With the new terminal in KC opening in not too long, I was wondering if it would make more sense to connect that traffic through KCI. Southwest or Jetblue would probably be the operator. Would ya'll prefer connecting in new KCI vs the current SWA terminal in STL? Is it just me who dislikes the T2 experience at STL?

[TitosBuritoBarn]

As we know, Southwest connects passengers from Omaha, Des Moines, Witchita, Tulsa, Little Rock, and OKC through St. Louis. I personally find the STL's terminal 2 to be overcrowded, long, and dated. It is also a backtrack if you are flying west or direct south.

With the new terminal in KC opening in not too long, I was wondering if it would make more sense to connect that traffic through KCI. Southwest or Jetblue would probably be the operator. Would ya'll prefer connecting in new KCI vs the current SWA terminal in STL? Is it just me who dislikes the T2 experience at STL?

I mean, personally, no. I’d rather not have an additional leg getting back to Omaha from St. Louis. I’d probably just drive if I had to connect.

But I also don’t agree Lambert Terminal 2 is any more crowded, long, or dated than any other terminal at a medium sized airport, or large airport for that matter.

That said, losing Southwest flights would be devastating for Lambert given that they had helped Lambert recover some of the lost passengers when Lambert's hub status for TWA/AA was pulled. I’m not sure how interested they would be in shifting to KC since they can add gates for relative chump change at Lambert by un-mothballing old AA gates. They did so a couple years ago, adding 2 for a whopping $200K. There’s also a customs facility in that area so they could add international flights if they wanted. Plus there is more runway capacity than the airport knows what to do with.

[damonhynes]

When the media/industry/LUV bring this up to the govt's of STL and KC, their answer should be "we're not looking to poach connecting traffic from any other airport, we want you here because of our O&D".

Having hubs in the middle of BF works for UPS and FedEx, not so good for pax.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

^ that's the other thing. Better have a lot of people connecting to Wichita, Tulsa, Little Rock, etc. because I don't think many would fly to KC as their destination from Omaha; the little time saved over driving for the cost of flying just doesn't pencil out.

[Mr.Nuke]

#7, 8, 9 I'm thinking I heard there will not be upper & lower roads and the drive will be enlarged and will include a portion of the garage. I could be misunderstanding. Perhaps MrNuke could help here.

Upper/lower roads haven't planned planned since before the 2013 masterplan. Your understanding is correct. There isn't much to go off of other than the 2019 World-Herald article announcing the terminal expansion project commencing and two low resolution drawings on Eppley's website under the terminal development section.

The terminal drive entrance is being expanded further back. They're going to 10 lanes with 3 of the new lanes going through the parking garage. So obviously the old parking garage needs to be reconfigured a bit Part of that is they're building a ramp on the far left that will allow people parking in the garage to go directly to the 3rd level. Eppley posted a photo last week showing this portion is already blocked off.

FYI, KCI just got Jetblue to JFK & Boston. Prior to covid I thought maybe Southwest or someone would pick up the OMA-BOS route. MrNuke can give an analysis on numbers between OMA & Boston. JFK would be nice as it's a gateway.

Pre-Covid Boston was Eppley's top O/D city without direct service. Eppley was in Boston's top 5 unserved cities. We'll see how things recover as it always seemed like someone between Delta, American, or Southwest would give it a go at some point had things continued uninterrupted. JFK isn't in that same boat demand wise, and Eppley is about to potentially have 3 different Airlines flying between the other 2 NYC area airports.

[Mr.Nuke]

As we know, Southwest connects passengers from Omaha, Des Moines, Witchita, Tulsa, Little Rock, and OKC through St. Louis.

The thing to realize here is that in the case of Omaha, Southwest isn't flying to St. Louis with the expressed intent of feeding connecting traffic. They're flying there because pre-covid 80-110 people were flying between Omaha and St. Louis every day and Southwest had a ridiculously high 90-95% market share on the route. Southwest certainly will connect passengers through St. Louis, but it isn't the majority of their traffic there. 37% of Southwest's passengers at St. Louis were connecting in 2019. https://www.flystl.com/newsroom/stl-new ... ger-growth

It is also a backtrack if you are flying west or direct south.

Even if we're just limiting ourselves to SW, if you're flying West why wouldn't you go through Denver, Phoenix, or Las Vegas?

I was wondering if it would make more sense to connect that traffic through KCI.

No it really doesn't make sense for Southwest to connect Omaha traffic at a place where there is literally zero demand to fly to from Omaha.

[Bob from Omaha]

Kci picked up some old & new Southwest flights. I wonder if OMA is going to as well.

[Bearcat06]

Saw an article from The Points Guy about Delta and the other big 3 adding new/additional routes to their line-ups to recreational regions (East Coast - NC down through GA and Key West, Northeast - Massachusetts, Burlington, VT, Rockies - Bozeman and Yellowstone areas, Durango, CO). Looks like they are transitioning from business travel to more vacation areas, which is nice except Omaha isn't really known for beaches or mountains or national parks.

I know we're still getting through the pandemic, but I think a lot of businesses have found that it's cheaper to do online meetings versus sending reps out all over the country several times a year. How much of that travel returns as things open back up? How much does that affect OMA's upgrade? I wonder what the business vs vacation/recreational travel ratio for OMA was/is?

[Mr.Nuke]

Kci picked up some old & new Southwest flights. I wonder if OMA is going to as well.

Omaha got some adds back. Orlando will resume 5x a week (Thur-Mon), Nashville is resuming 1x weekly on Sundays, and Tampa Bay will be operating 1x a week on Sundays. The latter hadn't been flown at all for several years.

Saw an article from The Points Guy about Delta and the other big 3 adding new/additional routes to their line-ups to recreational regions (East Coast - NC down through GA and Key West, Northeast - Massachusetts, Burlington, VT, Rockies - Bozeman and Yellowstone areas, Durango, CO). Looks like they are transitioning from business travel to more vacation areas, which is nice except Omaha isn't really known for beaches or mountains or national parks.

And it makes sense if business travel isn't there. Leisure travel by some metrics appears to be stronger than pre-pandemic. That being said, it is a two way street. Omaha may not be a "destination" but we have no reason to doubt that they're won't be very strong demand from here to destinations this summer. We historically know many places where that is likely to be. That is probably where the airport needs to be focusing their efforts with airlines (I have no reason to believe they aren't). The big ones still missing so far this summer are San Diego, Portland, New York City, and San Francisco. The last two are probably more mixed between leisure and business, but given the historical demand there I'm confident there is a fairly strong leisure component.

I know we're still getting through the pandemic, but I think a lot of businesses have found that it's cheaper to do online meetings versus sending reps out all over the country several times a year. How much of that travel returns as things open back up?

We'll see what happens, but I tend to think that actual personal interactions are still going to be important in client/sales relations. The one thing that may take longer to come back if it does at all is inter-company travel. A lot of that may be replaced with zoom type meetings permanently.

How much does that affect OMA's upgrade? I wonder what the business vs vacation/recreational travel ratio for OMA was/is?

This isn't Eppley specific and the numbers vary depending on the source, but from a pure numbers perspective "4 out of 5 domestic trips taken are for leisure purposes (80%)" https://www.ustravel.org/answersheet

[Mr.Nuke]

April up 1353.6% (yes that is correct) versus April of 2020. YTD, the deficit is down to just 15.1% and should flip to being positive in May.
https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

[skinzfan23]

Actually if you look at the numbers, I think the % increase is larger.
April 21: 265,355
April 20: 18,255

The % increase is actually 1,453.6% (or 14.5 times more passengers)

Either way that is great to see!

[Mr.Nuke]

Actually if you look at the numbers, I think the % increase is larger.
April 21: 265,355
April 20: 18,255

The % increase is actually 1,453.6% (or 14.5 times more passengers)

Their math looks okay to me. I agree with you that you can simply divide the two numbers and say there were 14.5 times more passengers.

However in calculating a percentage change (increase or decrease), the formula calls you to subtract the old value out of the numerator before dividing by the old value. So in this case, 247,100/18,255=1353.6%

[skinzfan23]

Gotcha, thanks for clarifying...I should be better at math than that. I was posting while working so I was a little sidetracked.

[Bob from Omaha]

Actually if you look at the numbers, I think the % increase is larger.
April 21: 265,355
April 20: 18,255

The % increase is actually 1,453.6% (or 14.5 times more passengers)

Either way that is great to see!

Just for more comparison, in April 2019 Eppley served 405,435. A ways to go but good progress.

[skinzfan23]

Thanks for posting those numbers Bob, where did you find that? On their website I could only find the current year monthly statistics.

[Omaha Cowboy]

I haven’t visited it in awhile, but the Eppley website used to provide the flight statistic numbers from previous years by the month..

Unless they changed it over the last year or so...

Ciao..LiO..Peace

[Mr.Nuke]

I haven’t visited it in awhile, but the Eppley website used to provide the flight statistic numbers from previous years by the month..

Unless they changed it over the last year or so...

Yeah they quit doing that with the new website. When the next year starts the links from the previous year's monthly traffic disappear. Luckily...

Thanks for posting those numbers Bob, where did you find that? On their website I could only find the current year monthly statistics.

Traffic stats for the past year and a half or so since they updated to their new website (and that gives us a year further back too by default as the 2020 stats will compare month over month to 2019) are still uploaded even though the links are removed. You can figure out the link pattern by looking at the actual website address i.e. for April 2020 it is uploads/2020/05/april-2020-traffic-statistics.pdf

Knowing the links are removed from Eppley's site after that given year, is also why we try and post the link in this thread too with each monthly update.

April down 95.5% year-over-year. and 36.4% year-to-date. https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

[Bob from Omaha]

Thanks for posting those numbers Bob, where did you find that? On their website I could only find the current year monthly statistics.

Oh, I have my wiley ways

[OmahaJaysCU]

US customs is opening a global entry facility at Eppley according to the Facebook. International flights next? I’m not sure what all a global entry facility entails.

[ita]

US customs is opening a global entry facility at Eppley according to the Facebook. International flights next? I’m not sure what all a global entry facility entails.

I have never heard of this global entry thing, but did find this from US Customs's website: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/trusted-trav ... ligibility.

Also, this:
https://www.cbp.gov/travel/trusted-trav ... obal-entry

Global Entry is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. Members enter the United States through automatic kiosks at select airports.

At airports, program members proceed to Global Entry kiosks, present their machine-readable passport or U.S. permanent resident card, place their fingerprints on the scanner for fingerprint verification and complete a customs declaration. The kiosk issues the traveler a transaction receipt and directs the traveler to baggage claim and the exit.

Travelers must be pre-approved for the Global Entry program. All applicants undergo a rigorous background check and in-person interview before enrollment.

While Global Entry’s goal is to speed travelers through the process, members may still be selected for further examination when entering the United States. Any violation of the program’s terms and conditions will result in the appropriate enforcement action and termination of the traveler’s membership privileges.

[Omaha Cowboy]

I haven’t visited it in awhile, but the Eppley website used to provide the flight statistic numbers from previous years by the month..

Unless they changed it over the last year or so...

Yeah they quit doing that with the new website. When the next year starts the links from the previous year's monthly traffic disappear. Luckily...

Thanks for posting those numbers Bob, where did you find that? On their website I could only find the current year monthly statistics.

Traffic stats for the past year and a half or so since they updated to their new website (and that gives us a year further back too by default as the 2020 stats will compare month over month to 2019) are still uploaded even though the links are removed. You can figure out the link pattern by looking at the actual website address i.e. for April 2020 it is uploads/2020/05/april-2020-traffic-statistics.pdf

Knowing the links are removed from Eppley's site after that given year, is also why we try and post the link in this thread too with each monthly update.

April down 95.5% year-over-year. and 36.4% year-to-date. https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

https://www.flyoma.com/omaha-airport-au ... cts-stats/

From the Eppley Website, you can get stats dating all the way back to 2000..Just click on yearly stats. At least we can still look at that...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

[Mr.Nuke]

US customs is opening a global entry facility at Eppley according to the Facebook. International flights next? I’m not sure what all a global entry facility entails.

Eppley is getting a global entry enrollment center. GE has nothing to do with international flights coming here. It is merely a benefit for people who may be international travelers in the area. Global entry is basically the TSA pre-check for international travelers. Having global entry allows for expedited customs and immigration processing when re-entering the United States in addition to pre-check status at TSA lines. Previously, if you wanted this as a resident of Omaha you would need to schedule a long layover at an international airport, or drive to a larger city, or wait for a once every couple years event locally to get it. This will be a welcome addition for international travelers.

[Bearcat06]

I haven’t visited it in awhile, but the Eppley website used to provide the flight statistic numbers from previous years by the month..

Unless they changed it over the last year or so...

Yeah they quit doing that with the new website. When the next year starts the links from the previous year's monthly traffic disappear. Luckily...

Thanks for posting those numbers Bob, where did you find that? On their website I could only find the current year monthly statistics.

Traffic stats for the past year and a half or so since they updated to their new website (and that gives us a year further back too by default as the 2020 stats will compare month over month to 2019) are still uploaded even though the links are removed. You can figure out the link pattern by looking at the actual website address i.e. for April 2020 it is uploads/2020/05/april-2020-traffic-statistics.pdf

Knowing the links are removed from Eppley's site after that given year, is also why we try and post the link in this thread too with each monthly update.

April down 95.5% year-over-year. and 36.4% year-to-date. https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

If you open the links on your phone, it may also download it to your saved files.

[Bob from Omaha]

Here's a pic and story about the "new" terminal at Eppley from 1962. I flew out of this terminal from the late 60s til the current one was built. It was a very different way to travel and when the current one was built it really did feel modern and comparable to larger ones around the country.

1962 Eppley Terminal