Omaha Eppley Airfield - DISCUSSION

[Bearcat06]

any thoughts on why DSM seems to have rebounded thus far much closer to their pre-pandemic levels compared to Eppley.

I’m curious on what metric you are using to determine this… Given the world fell off a cliff so to speak in about March/April of 2020 I think the most apt pre-pandemic comparisons to now are the EOY 2019 to EOY 2021 numbers.

In 2021 Des Moines had 2,167,510 passengers. in 2019 they had 2,919,904. That is a 25.77% decline over the period or an average decline of 13.84% over the two-year period.

In 2021 Eppley had 3,749,337 passengers. In 2019 they had 5,023,668. That is a 25.37% decline over the period or an average decline of 13.61% over the two-year period.

By that metric Eppley is narrowly ahead of DSM in-terms of pre-pandemic recovery levels. Like Bearcat06 said, I’m guessing you were looking at raw numbers and thinking 2.9 million to 2.1 million seems much less than 5 million to 3.75 million, and in real numbers it is, but on an equivalent basis it isn't...

I was a little more surprised at the difference in pax loads between the two though. Iowa's population is about 1.3 million more than Nebraska, but looking at it closer based on 2020 census numbers, the Omaha metro has about a 1 million population within 50 miles, put it at 1.25 million if you include Lincoln. Des Moines is around 700,000 for the same 50 mile range. They both serve about 3 nonstop destinations, OMA at 31 and DSM at 29, so population and possibly events/businesses must be the bigger drivers.

I’m confused on what you mean by pax loads, (just passengers)??? And metro population or state population isn't the only or even the deciding factor here. This is why catchment areas matter. In Iowa, DSM has to compete with Eppley to the West, MSP to the North, ORD/MDW to the East, and Kansas City to to the South/Southwest.

Your absolutely correct, catchment area is a huge factor. I guess I was looking at the population base around the two as being a decent chunk of the travelers and presumed, maybe naively, that more of Iowa's population would be more centralized around Des Moines (i.e. how is it they can have over a million more in population in a smaller area and not be packed in around Des Moines? ) I see now there is a decent chunk of their population on the eastern side of the state and certainly OMA will pull anyone from CB and a good chunk between Omaha and West Des Moines. I could see anyone north of Ames heading to MSP and anyone east of Iowa City heading to Chicago. Makes sense. Maybe being more centralized is more of a hindrance for DSM than I initially thought.

OMA on the other hand, really doesn't have any competition to the west or north and probably pulls from as far as Grand Island or even Kearney and in western Iowa can probably pull from as far as Sioux City to the North and Hamburg to the south. So it certainly wouldn't hurt OMA that that area covers probably 70% of Nebraska's population and maybe 20-25% of Iowa's.

[Bearcat06]

Don't forget that Cedar Rapids & the Quad Cities also have airports. CID did well over a million prior to covid. Quad cities did somewhat less than that. Thus DSM competes with airports both within and outside Iowa. Both Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities have United, American, Delta and Allegiant. I'd guess that OMA gets a majority of western Iowa's passengers and not everyone makes the shlep to Chicago, MSP, KC, etc. from eastern Iowa. That situation isn't like LNK. CID & QCI seem to have a larger relative populations to draw from and distance isn't like LNK.

DSM has grown impressively in the last few years. The Allegiant traffic helps but the truth is that it's relative. In other words, OMA's Southwest traffic dwarfs anything DSM has. For whatever reason Southwest never grew its DSM routes or frequencies.

In addition, while Eppley certainly could use the proposed improvements the current 20 gates seem to be sufficient for now. On the other hand, DSM's terminal is woefully inadequate and quite a bit older. It has 12 gates.

My biggest question for Nuke is this. How big can DSM get? I mean, they got near 3 million. Is 5 million conceivable for DSM? Is 7 million conceivable for OMA? (And for the sake of this conversation let's assume post covid things get back to 2018-2019 growth patterns)

As for OMA's modernization, it seems that they have been and are proceeding logically. New roads, car rental. Moving the CUP would be the next item. I still liked the prior design to the current proposed design.

Yeah, I had to go through DSM back in October after AA canceled my flight to Omaha. I thought OMA was outdated...yikes! DSM was almost like going through Burlington, VT except they only have 8 gates. Cool little town, rinky dink airport. Can't say for certain, but I don't know that if it's typically normal for them at that location to come over the system while your on the tarmac and say...we're going to have to move some things around to make sure our weight is balanced enough to get above the mountains.

[Mr.Nuke]

yeah you guessed right. I took a casual look at 2.9 vs 2.1 for Des Moines and compared our 3.75 to my recollection of Eppley being somewhere over 5. Didn't work the math. And my pre-math perception said, "oooh, is Des Moines making ground on us?' Again casually, I thought to myself that 2.1 vs 3.75 seems closer than 2.9 vs 5+.

That is how I knew what you did instantly, because it would’ve been my inclination looking at the numbers as well.

My bad as you point out. I had a feeling I was being hasty and that's why I used the word "seems" in my sentence. Glad to be wrong in this case.

It’s all good, because your “far much closer” to pre-pandemic levels comment is what actually made me do a double take and ask myself if it actually was the case, particularly because we knew Eppley was up over Des Moines this year. I did the mental math at that point and knew it had to be actually pretty close between the two and then did the actual math to find Eppley narrowly ahead.

Your absolutely correct, catchment area is a huge factor. I guess I was looking at the population base around the two as being a decent chunk of the travelers and presumed, maybe naively, that more of Iowa's population would be more centralized around Des Moines (i.e. how is it they can have over a million more in population in a smaller area and not be packed in around Des Moines? ) I see now there is a decent chunk of their population on the eastern side of the state

Yeah, I totally agree that the population base around the airport is your prime chunk of travelers. Roughly 28% of Iowa’s population is in Des Moines’ CSA. The thing is Cedar Rapids/Iowa City CSA and the Quad Cities CSA both sides of the river) combined have more people skewing things a bit further East. Beyond that, Pottawattamie County has about 20% of the population as Polk County (Des Moines) as well.

Omaha’s CSA (including 3 Iowa counties) is 51% of Nebraska’s population. That alone explains quite a bit of the difference in passenger levels between the two airports. This also obviously doesn’t include Lincoln which we know Eppley has a huge market share in.

and certainly OMA will pull anyone from CB and a good chunk between Omaha and West Des Moines. I could see anyone north of Ames heading to MSP and anyone east of Iowa City heading to Chicago. Makes sense. Maybe being more centralized is more of a hindrance for DSM than I initially thought.

Exactly, and I don’t know that it is necessarily a hindrance. They certainly have their own catchment area there. They’re just kind of naturally limited by larger airports on multiple sides making their territory realistically what it is.

OMA on the other hand, really doesn't have any competition to the west or north and probably pulls from as far as Grand Island or even Kearney and in western Iowa can probably pull from as far as Sioux City to the North and Hamburg to the south. So it certainly wouldn't hurt OMA that that area covers probably 70% of Nebraska's population and maybe 20-25% of Iowa's.

Agreed, also again why Omaha’s passenger numbers are what they are compared to Des Moines.

Don't forget that Cedar Rapids & the Quad Cities also have airports. CID did well over a million prior to covid. Quad cities did somewhat less than that. Thus DSM competes with airports both within and outside Iowa. Both Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities have United, American, Delta and Allegiant. I'd guess that OMA gets a majority of western Iowa's passengers and not everyone makes the shlep to Chicago, MSP, KC, etc. from eastern Iowa. That situation isn't like LNK. CID & QCI seem to have a larger relative populations to draw from and distance isn't like LNK.

Also agree here.

DSM has grown impressively in the last few years. The Allegiant traffic helps but the truth is that it's relative. In other words, OMA's Southwest traffic dwarfs anything DSM has. For whatever reason Southwest never grew its DSM routes or frequencies.

Yeah, Omaha’s Southwest passengers were basically 61% of Des Moines total passengers. That certainly puts some things into perspective.

My biggest question for Nuke is this. How big can DSM get? I mean, they got near 3 million. Is 5 million conceivable for DSM? Is 7 million conceivable for OMA? (And for the sake of this conversation let's assume post covid things get back to 2018-2019 growth patterns)

I’ll have to give this a bit more though. My inclination off of the top of my head though is for everything talked about above, Des Moines is kind of limited due to the catchment constraints mentioned above. Can the metro grow? Certainly. If that happens, can they pull back some fringe people that are traveling to other airports right now? Yeah of course. To what extent I don’t know… Eppley has sneakingly done a good job of seemingly locking up leakage from Omaha over the past decade. Presumably Des Moines might be able to do the same some how.

As for OMA's modernization, it seems that they have been and are proceeding logically. New roads, car rental. Moving the CUP would be the next item. I still liked the prior design to the current proposed design.

I still wouldn’t read to much into the design that they showed. We know they weren’t all that far into the process.

[Bob from Omaha]

As Nuke would say there are a number of metrics to compare 2021's airport traffic results. One could look at individual carriers, monthly totals, year over year and year over 2018 & 2019, and on and on.

I was looking at KCI's December results for 2021. Lincoln's as well.

Briefly, here are the percentage changes for each airport. The larger the percentage the more the growth, 2021 vs 2020.

Omaha Plus 75.2%
Des Moines Plus 67.3%
Kansas City Plus 70.94%
Lincoln Plus 66%

Now there are a couple of things to consider for 2022. Des Moines will have a full year of new Allegiant traffic, assuming the status quo continues. Conversely, Lincoln lost Delta at least for now. It does have money to incentivize new service so we'll see. Of course covid will decided how 2022 goes.

[Bearcat06]

As Nuke would say there are a number of metrics to compare 2021's airport traffic results. One could look at individual carriers, monthly totals, year over year and year over 2018 & 2019, and on and on.

I was looking at KCI's December results for 2021. Lincoln's as well.

Briefly, here are the percentage changes for each airport. The larger the percentage the more the growth, 2021 vs 2020.

Omaha Plus 75.2%
Des Moines Plus 67.3%
Kansas City Plus 70.94%
Lincoln Plus 66%

Now there are a couple of things to consider for 2022. Des Moines will have a full year of new Allegiant traffic, assuming the status quo continues. Conversely, Lincoln lost Delta at least for now. It does have money to incentivize new service so we'll see. Of course covid will decided how 2022 goes.

Speaking of KCI, here's the latest I just looked up on their upgrade. Their new terminal is planning to open in the spring of 2023 with 39 gates (option to expand to 50 gates) and a 6,000 space parking garage at a cost of a cool $1.5 billion.

[Bearcat06]

Story from the Lincoln Journal Star today about LNKs struggles with the pandemic and losing Delta as a carrier.

https://journalstar.com/business/local/ ... urnal_Star

[PWL73316]

Speaking of KCI, here's the latest I just looked up on their upgrade. Their new terminal is planning to open in the spring of 2023 with 39 gates (option to expand to 50 gates) and a 6,000 space parking garage at a cost of a cool $1.5 billion.

KC had almost literally zero amenities and absolutely shocking personnel costs post 9/11 because each small group of 2-4 gates had to have its own TSA checkpoint, and you can't subsequently leave the gate area, so you can't support shared amenities. They had a lot of very low-hanging fruit when it comes to building a modern terminal.

[Bearcat06]

Way too early question with the announcement of the pending Frontier and Spirit airlines merger.

Should the merger go through, is there any impact on OMA? Some early reports suggest it could be beneficial for medium-sized hubs. Then again, it's a merger of two of the lowest rated airlines year to year and Frontier has made up 2%-4% of the share in passenger traffic in OMA over the past five years.

[NEDodger]

Way too early question with the announcement of the pending Frontier and Spirit airlines merger.

Should the merger go through, is there any impact on OMA? Some early reports suggest it could be beneficial for medium-sized hubs. Then again, it's a merger of two of the lowest rated airlines year to year and Frontier has made up 2%-4% of the share in passenger traffic in OMA over the past five years.

I could see that. With a merger, you’d have to assume that there would be consolidation of some routes where both airlines already have a presence. That could lead towards replacing those routes in airports where they don’t have much going on. Southwest is the king of discount carriers here, but I believe Spirit offers even fewer frills so there may be a market for people willing to go a tier lower than Southwest?

[Garrett]

Way too early question with the announcement of the pending Frontier and Spirit airlines merger.

Should the merger go through, is there any impact on OMA? Some early reports suggest it could be beneficial for medium-sized hubs. Then again, it's a merger of two of the lowest rated airlines year to year and Frontier has made up 2%-4% of the share in passenger traffic in OMA over the past five years.

I could see that. With a merger, you’d have to assume that there would be consolidation of some routes where both airlines already have a presence. That could lead towards replacing those routes in airports where they don’t have much going on. Southwest is the king of discount carriers here, but I believe Spirit offers even fewer frills so there may be a market for people willing to go a tier lower than Southwest?

Southwest isn't even as inexpensive as it used to be imo. Whenever I'm flying home to Omaha it's almost always one of the more expensive options, especially if I'm just carrying on.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

Way too early question with the announcement of the pending Frontier and Spirit airlines merger.

Should the merger go through, is there any impact on OMA? Some early reports suggest it could be beneficial for medium-sized hubs. Then again, it's a merger of two of the lowest rated airlines year to year and Frontier has made up 2%-4% of the share in passenger traffic in OMA over the past five years.

I could see that. With a merger, you’d have to assume that there would be consolidation of some routes where both airlines already have a presence. That could lead towards replacing those routes in airports where they don’t have much going on. Southwest is the king of discount carriers here, but I believe Spirit offers even fewer frills so there may be a market for people willing to go a tier lower than Southwest?

Southwest isn't even as inexpensive as it used to be imo. Whenever I'm flying home to Omaha it's almost always one of the more expensive options, especially if I'm just carrying on.

Yeah, when I used to fly to Omaha from Chicago United and American were often less expensive than Southwest.

[Bob from Omaha]

Way too early question with the announcement of the pending Frontier and Spirit airlines merger.

Should the merger go through, is there any impact on OMA? Some early reports suggest it could be beneficial for medium-sized hubs. Then again, it's a merger of two of the lowest rated airlines year to year and Frontier has made up 2%-4% of the share in passenger traffic in OMA over the past five years.

I could see that. With a merger, you’d have to assume that there would be consolidation of some routes where both airlines already have a presence. That could lead towards replacing those routes in airports where they don’t have much going on. Southwest is the king of discount carriers here, but I believe Spirit offers even fewer frills so there may be a market for people willing to go a tier lower than Southwest?

I read that they have very few overlapping routes.

[Bearcat06]

Way too early question with the announcement of the pending Frontier and Spirit airlines merger.

Should the merger go through, is there any impact on OMA? Some early reports suggest it could be beneficial for medium-sized hubs. Then again, it's a merger of two of the lowest rated airlines year to year and Frontier has made up 2%-4% of the share in passenger traffic in OMA over the past five years.

I could see that. With a merger, you’d have to assume that there would be consolidation of some routes where both airlines already have a presence. That could lead towards replacing those routes in airports where they don’t have much going on. Southwest is the king of discount carriers here, but I believe Spirit offers even fewer frills so there may be a market for people willing to go a tier lower than Southwest?

Southwest isn't even as inexpensive as it used to be imo. Whenever I'm flying home to Omaha it's almost always one of the more expensive options, especially if I'm just carrying on.

I would tend to agree with this. If you're able to get a direct flight on SW they usually aren't the best times and most flights unfortunately have a stop or two.

United, AA and Delta in most cases have actually been better priced between most of my destinations and/or had better departure/arrival times for maybe just a bit more.

[Brad]

Also on the January 2022 agenda is item 7. If the name is correct I'm curious where they will fly from OMA.

It is going to be cargo for Amazon from Forth Worth.

[Bearcat06]

Also on the January 2022 agenda is item 7. If the name is correct I'm curious where they will fly from OMA.

It is going to be cargo for Amazon from Forth Worth.

You beat me to this. Just saw the KETV article.

Daily cargo flights from Amazon to be arriving at Eppley. Cargo numbers will rise. Now we'll see if passenger numbers increase in 2022 with Covid hopefully slowing down.

https://ketv.com/article/omaha-eppley-a ... e/39034996

[Mr.Nuke]

Way too early question with the announcement of the pending Frontier and Spirit airlines merger.

Should the merger go through, is there any impact on OMA? Some early reports suggest it could be beneficial for medium-sized hubs. Then again, it's a merger of two of the lowest rated airlines year to year and Frontier has made up 2%-4% of the share in passenger traffic in OMA over the past five years.

If Frontier's route planners still run the combined airline we may potentially benefit from more darts being thrown on the route map board. They've been one of the more willing airlines to try stuff from here at various times.

[Bob from Omaha]

Way too early question with the announcement of the pending Frontier and Spirit airlines merger.

Should the merger go through, is there any impact on OMA? Some early reports suggest it could be beneficial for medium-sized hubs. Then again, it's a merger of two of the lowest rated airlines year to year and Frontier has made up 2%-4% of the share in passenger traffic in OMA over the past five years.

If Frontier's route planners still run the combined airline we may potentially benefit from more darts being thrown on the route map board. They've been one of the more willing airlines to try stuff from here at various times.

True but they sure seem flakey at times.

As for Spirit, they have a large operation here in Detroit. We've flown them a lot. You've probably heard all the complaints but the fact is that we've saved a lot of money, the planes are clean, the staff is for the most part friendly and most importantly 99% of the time we land early. As for fees we've learned how to play the game. We pack light. We don't buy seats or snacks. Just one example: My wife and daughter flew to New York last summer. Round tip tickets for the two of them was $72. Not each. Total. That's hard to beat.

The possible loser in this merger is Allegiant. I'd like to hear Nuke's thoughts on that.

[nebugeater]

So this was sitting at Eppley Today around noon and still there about 20 Min ago It was on the end near the FEDEX / DHL area. Stairs were pulled up and I saw a couple of people walking down them. Sounded like the engines were spinning.

All I can figure is that they didn't make the super bowl this year so the next best thing was to fly to Omaha

[jag42]

So this was sitting at Eppley Today around noon and still there about 20 Min ago It was on the end near the FEDEX / DHL area. Stairs were pulled up and I saw a couple of people walking down them. Sounded like the engines were spinning.

All I can figure is that they didn't make the super bowl this year so the next best thing was to fly to Omaha

My son took this pic about 4, my guess is they were in town interviewing an OC candidate....

[nebugeater]

So this was sitting at Eppley Today around noon and still there about 20 Min ago It was on the end near the FEDEX / DHL area. Stairs were pulled up and I saw a couple of people walking down them. Sounded like the engines were spinning.

All I can figure is that they didn't make the super bowl this year so the next best thing was to fly to Omaha

My son took this pic about 4, my guess is they were in town interviewing an OC candidate....

Still sitting there this morning

[Mr.Nuke]

January starts off up 80.7% over last year.

https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

[TransitOriented]

I don't know if this was mentioned here yet, but Customs and Border Protection is now doing Global Entry interviews at Eppley. This is a program that allows expedited passport processing back into the United Sates.

https://www.flyoma.com/passenger-servic ... -precheck/

Has anyone had any luck getting an appointment this year?

[jjjjhskr]

January starts off up 80.7% over last year.

https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

Does anyone know how this compares to Jan 2019?

[Bearcat06]

January starts off up 80.7% over last year.

https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

Does anyone know how this compares to Jan 2019?

Yes...according to the numbers I have the four past January totals are as follows:

Jan '22 - 283,243
Jan '21 - 156,754
Jan '20 - 375,886
Jan '19 - 356,583

So if my math is correct Jan '22 is approximately 79.4% of the Jan '19 totals and about 75.4% of the Jan '20 numbers.

[Mr.Nuke]

Yeah remember things were fine in January 2020. COVID didn't have an impact until Mid March.

[Mr.Nuke]

I don't know if this was mentioned here yet, but Customs and Border Protection is now doing Global Entry interviews at Eppley. This is a program that allows expedited passport processing back into the United Sates.

https://www.flyoma.com/passenger-servic ... -precheck/

Has anyone had any luck getting an appointment this year?

I've yet to ever see available appointments there on casual searches.

[labguy]

United's latest round of route cuts includes EWR-OMA. https://thepointsguy.com/news/united-ai ... ic-routes/

[skinzfan23]

United's latest round of route cuts includes EWR-OMA. https://thepointsguy.com/news/united-ai ... ic-routes/

Thanks for posting....makes sense. We just booked a flight to Jamaica for this fall and then got an email a few days ago saying that we now need to go through Ohare to get to Newark.

[Mr.Nuke]

United's latest round of route cuts includes EWR-OMA. https://thepointsguy.com/news/united-ai ... ic-routes/

That one is a disappointing loss for Omaha. Yeah you can still get to NYC directly via LGA on Delta or American, but (and yeah this can be replicated on other airlines or still to an extent on United via ORD) EWR gave you direct access to not only the NYC metro, rather an East Coast international hub as well. SFO tentatively is still on the summer schedule for now, we'll see if that holds or not.

[TransitOriented]

I've been doing quite a bit of shopping lately, but it still seems like the airlines are still in the "wait and see" period. It seems like they haven't fully loaded their fares/routes yet. It makes it difficult to book if there is nothing to book.

[Garrett]

I’m just grateful the LGA>OMA direct flights are back. Having to stop in Atlanta or Charlotte or Minneapolis for layovers was getting old

[Mr.Nuke]

I've been doing quite a bit of shopping lately, but it still seems like the airlines are still in the "wait and see" period. It seems like they haven't fully loaded their fares/routes yet. It makes it difficult to book if there is nothing to book.

How far out are you looking? The reason I ask is your conclusion seems counterintuitive to me. Using the Newark/United example above, until this week that flight had been scheduled to come back in 2 months basically every single month. The problem was United has been adjusting their schedule monthly about 2 months out and pushing it back every time (SFO is in the same boat but hasn't been outright dropped yet). It is a lot easier to load something ahead of time and then rebook people like skinzfan23 if you no longer intend to operate it than to suddenly add routes or frequencies or open fare buckets out of nowhere.

With labor shortages particularly on the pilot side that aren't likely to resolve themselves quickly, I don't know that I would be expecting routes/frequencies/fares to suddenly pop up.

[TransitOriented]

How far out are you looking?

Thanksgiving. After posting my comment the other day, I did more digging and it seems it might be a codeshare shortage of inventory situation. Also it could be related to different countries still being locked down (which could affect codeshares).

[Bearcat06]

Not news for OMA, but SkyWest Airlines can't stop services until at least July 8th (unless replacement carriers are found) for 29 routes including Scottsbluff, Kearney and North Platte.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... ce=twitter

[Louie]

Not news for OMA, but SkyWest Airlines can't stop services until at least July 8th (unless replacement carriers are found) for 29 routes including Scottsbluff, Kearney and North Platte.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... ce=twitter

But theres nothing preventing stoppage on that date, right?

[Mr.Nuke]

Not news for OMA, but SkyWest Airlines can't stop services until at least July 8th (unless replacement carriers are found) for 29 routes including Scottsbluff, Kearney and North Platte.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... ce=twitter

But theres nothing preventing stoppage on that date, right?

If no one bids on a route, presumably the DOT is going to make Skywest fly the existing contract they're trying to get out of like the article says for "and for additional 30-day periods as necessary."

The problem is that is likely a technicality. I'm not well versed the EAS rules, but I don't I don't believe there is anything to stop Skywest from re-bidding during the open bidding process under more favorable terms to them, essentially what they had been trying to do with the existing contracts before the DOT told them no. If that happens I don't see how any of these are dropped completely under this contract as Skywest is left holding the bag if no one else bids. Going forward when these truly come up up on the open market for bidding it becomes more problematic as the pilot shortage continues and regional jets continue to get phased out. No one is going to want to send a 737 to North Platte.

[Louie]

Not news for OMA, but SkyWest Airlines can't stop services until at least July 8th (unless replacement carriers are found) for 29 routes including Scottsbluff, Kearney and North Platte.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... ce=twitter

But theres nothing preventing stoppage on that date, right?

If no one bids on a route, presumably the DOT is going to make Skywest fly the existing contract they're trying to get out of like the article says for "and for additional 30-day periods as necessary."

The problem is that is likely a technicality. I'm not well versed the EAS rules, but I don't I don't believe there is anything to stop Skywest from re-bidding during the open bidding process under more favorable terms to them, essentially what they had been trying to do with the existing contracts before the DOT told them no. If that happens I don't see how any of these are dropped completely under this contract as Skywest is left holding the bag if no one else bids. Going forward when these truly come up up on the open market for bidding it becomes more problematic as the pilot shortage continues and regional jets continue to get phased out. No one is going to want to send a 737 to North Platte.

Yes, I suspect these smaller regional airports are having to make these difficult decisions all across the US.

[Bob from Omaha]

We could just wait for Eppley to post the February numbers to their web site but I thought I'd see if Nuke was around. Board meeting was today.

Anything?

[Bearcat06]

Not news for OMA, but SkyWest Airlines can't stop services until at least July 8th (unless replacement carriers are found) for 29 routes including Scottsbluff, Kearney and North Platte.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... ce=twitter

But theres nothing preventing stoppage on that date, right?

If no one bids on a route, presumably the DOT is going to make Skywest fly the existing contract they're trying to get out of like the article says for "and for additional 30-day periods as necessary."

The problem is that is likely a technicality. I'm not well versed the EAS rules, but I don't I don't believe there is anything to stop Skywest from re-bidding during the open bidding process under more favorable terms to them, essentially what they had been trying to do with the existing contracts before the DOT told them no. If that happens I don't see how any of these are dropped completely under this contract as Skywest is left holding the bag if no one else bids. Going forward when these truly come up up on the open market for bidding it becomes more problematic as the pilot shortage continues and regional jets continue to get phased out. No one is going to want to send a 737 to North Platte.

Though, to be fair Southwest flies into smaller markets, albeit seasonally (steamboat springs, crested butte). I think North Platte could be a little flat to support a ski resort though.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

Not news for OMA, but SkyWest Airlines can't stop services until at least July 8th (unless replacement carriers are found) for 29 routes including Scottsbluff, Kearney and North Platte.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... ce=twitter

But theres nothing preventing stoppage on that date, right?

If no one bids on a route, presumably the DOT is going to make Skywest fly the existing contract they're trying to get out of like the article says for "and for additional 30-day periods as necessary."

The problem is that is likely a technicality. I'm not well versed the EAS rules, but I don't I don't believe there is anything to stop Skywest from re-bidding during the open bidding process under more favorable terms to them, essentially what they had been trying to do with the existing contracts before the DOT told them no. If that happens I don't see how any of these are dropped completely under this contract as Skywest is left holding the bag if no one else bids. Going forward when these truly come up up on the open market for bidding it becomes more problematic as the pilot shortage continues and regional jets continue to get phased out. No one is going to want to send a 737 to North Platte.

Though, to be fair Southwest flies into smaller markets, albeit seasonally (steamboat springs, crested butte). I think North Platte could be a little flat to support a ski resort though.

Just needs a little rebranding. Change the name from North Platte-Lee Bird Regional Airport to Greater Greater Denver International Airport.