Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines will become Eppley Airfield’s eighth airline when they begin twice-weekly service between Omaha and Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP) starting Friday, May 26, 2023. Flights will operate on Mondays and Fridays. The schedule for the new service is as follows:
Minneapolis to Omaha Omaha to Minneapolis
Depart: 4:05 PM Depart: 6:10 PM
Arrive: 5:15 PM Arrive: 7:23 PM
*Schedule is subject to change.
Sun Country will fly this new route with a Boeing 737-800 aircraft seating 186 passengers. The flights will operate during the peak summer travel period between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day. Flights are available for purchase beginning today through Sun Country’s website, www.suncountry.com.
Sun Country also running non-stop from KCI to Minneapolis-St Paul. Also on Mondays and Fridays.
Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:55 pm
I'm curious. How many of you drive to Kansas City to fly out of KCI? How many drive to Des Moines to fly Allegiant?
I drove to KC a few years ago to save $. I will never do it again. The hassle wasn’t worth the $ saved to me.
Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:55 pm
I'm curious. How many of you drive to Kansas City to fly out of KCI? How many drive to Des Moines to fly Allegiant?
I drove to KC a few years ago to save $. I will never do it again. The hassle wasn’t worth the $ saved to me.
I’m on the same page. I think the only way I’d go to KCI to save money/time is if they pick up the route to London.
Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:55 pm
I'm curious. How many of you drive to Kansas City to fly out of KCI? How many drive to Des Moines to fly Allegiant?
Des Moines on Allegiant from Omaha....lots recently. I posted earlier on this. The Allegiant agent in Des Moines told me lots of Nebraska ID's on certain flights. San Diego, Florida, Portland and Palm Springs were the ones she mentioned.
Also personal knowledge of lots of people and it continues. Family of 5 from lincoln driving to Des Moines for cheap flight to Ft Lauderdale over new years. Family of 6 from Gretna driving to Des Moines for trip to Punta Gorda Florida around Christmas (they told me tickets were half the price). Family of 4 from Omaha driving here for trip to Palm Springs.
I just keep hearing example after example of people doing the drive.
On flip side, buddy from here said he used to drive to Omaha from Des Moines to take Alaska nonstop to Seattle about once a month. He now just flies out of Des Moines because he said Alaska has become very expensive. Said he paid $320 from Des Moines connecting last week and Omaha was $600 on Alaska. He's hoping that Allegiant starts up Seattle from Des Moines soon!
Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:55 pm
I'm curious. How many of you drive to Kansas City to fly out of KCI? How many drive to Des Moines to fly Allegiant?
A couple years back I flew out of KCI one time as they had better flights and prices at the last minute to go to DFW...like a third of the price. Which I found a bit odd given the number of directs that OMA has to DFW daily. Trip down to KCI was fine, didn't care for the drive back just because I'd rather be home 30 minutes after landing vs 3 hours, but it was what it was.
Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines will become Eppley Airfield’s eighth airline when they begin twice-weekly service between Omaha and Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP) starting Friday, May 26, 2023. Flights will operate on Mondays and Fridays. The schedule for the new service is as follows:
Minneapolis to Omaha Omaha to Minneapolis
Depart: 4:05 PM Depart: 6:10 PM
Arrive: 5:15 PM Arrive: 7:23 PM
*Schedule is subject to change.
Sun Country will fly this new route with a Boeing 737-800 aircraft seating 186 passengers. The flights will operate during the peak summer travel period between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day. Flights are available for purchase beginning today through Sun Country’s website, www.suncountry.com.
A bit surprised at the run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I don't think of Minneapolis as a particular hot spot for summer tourism, but maybe I'm out of the loop. Considering a fairly large contingent of Vikings fans in the area I figured they might test the NFL season considering their direct to KC and a couple other cities was being promoted for their MLS team and access.
Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:55 pm
I'm curious. How many of you drive to Kansas City to fly out of KCI? How many drive to Des Moines to fly Allegiant?
Years ago we flew out of KC maybe once a year. Airline prices have to be significantly lower than for flying out of Eppley to justify an overnight hotel stay and paying to park for the duration of your trip, plus the fuel to drive down and back. Then there is your time. What is your time worth?
The last time we made the jaunt was when we flew nonstop to New Orleans from KC, saving a connection. But on the way back SWA changed our nonstop to a connection in Milwaukee, eliminating that time saving.
On the plus side, if you travel down the night before you can hit a BBQ place for a nice pre trip meal!
Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:55 pm
I'm curious. How many of you drive to Kansas City to fly out of KCI? How many drive to Des Moines to fly Allegiant?
From 2003 to 09, I flew out of MCI a lot. AirTran was in a price war with Delta, also AA was way more expensive out of OMA v. MCI. That discrepancy in price disappeared, and also Southwest bought AirTran...
I flew back into DSM yesterday, there were two busses out front that were UNO buses. From what I could guess, maybe taking the Allegiant nonstop to or from Ft Lauderdale based off the departure/arrival board?
Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:55 pm
I'm curious. How many of you drive to Kansas City to fly out of KCI? How many drive to Des Moines to fly Allegiant?
Prior to Southwest's arrival to Omaha we flew out of KC as much as we did Omaha. Honestly it's been almost 20 years since we flew from KC. Now if they get some direct flights to Europe and we were to go, we'd definitely make the drive. I think that would be the one reason we'd fly out of KC vs Omaha.
Granted I've lived away from Omaha in cities with larger airports for the past 11 years, but in any case, I've yet to ever find the cost savings to traveling out of the city to a lower cost flight to be worth it when factoring in time and, in some cases, the airline I'd be flying.
"Video game violence is not a new problem. Who could forget in the wake of SimCity how children everywhere took up urban planning." - Stephen Colbert
Alex Whitney
The holiday season is like the super bowl for those in the travel industry and for airlines, there isn’t a bigger week than the one around Thanksgiving.
“The busiest travel day we have is next Monday, the second busiest travel day we have is tomorrow,” said Tim Schmitt, Chief Operating Officer for Eppley Airport.
Over the last two years, holidays haven’t brought the crowds that are normally seen around Thanksgiving but Schmitt says as the number of pandemic-related restrictions has gone down the number of passengers has gone up.
“We are expecting approximately 173,000 passengers to fly through the terminal in this thanksgiving period. This is a 4.2% increase over 2021 and if you want some further comparison and go back to pre-pandemic travel periods that’s a .5% increase,” said Schmitt
The authority put out an invitation for bids on Phase 3 of the terminal drive expansion. This includes a canopy between the South Garage and terminal, along the length of the terminal.
The link appears to have been removed from the Terminal Modernization Program page; however, a PDF was shared with updated information including renderings from a November 17th meeting.
I found the most interesting thing so far in that PDF to be the, "New Federal Inspection Service (FIS) facility capable of processing 400 peak hour arriving international passengers." Is Eppley making a play for a couple future international flights?
almighty_tuna wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 8:05 pm
I found the most interesting thing so far in that PDF to be the, "New Federal Inspection Service (FIS) facility capable of processing 400 peak hour arriving international passengers." Is Eppley making a play for a couple future international flights?
Nice catch. Since we've had Toronto in the past, it only makes sense that they do with the future expansion. What other international destinations would make sense for Omaha? Calgary/Edmonton? Montreal? Mexico City?
I certainly don't see direct flights across an ocean in Eppley's future, but I'm sure a seasonal couple flights to Mexico (resort town or Mexico City), the Caribbean (Nassau, other tourist spots?), or a major Canadian city or two (maybe Vancouver, something central like Calgary/Edmonton/Winnipeg, or a couple eastern cities like Ottowa/Quebec/Toronto) wouldn't be an unreasonable expectation and appropriate for an airport of Eppley's draw.
Many in our Airport/airline discussion community here, might find this video interesting. Perhaps some of you have taken this flight. I believe the Vlogger filmed this flight just before the Thanksgiving holiday last week-
Bellevue Kid wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 7:30 pm
The link appears to have been removed from the Terminal Modernization Program page; however, a PDF was shared with updated information including renderings from a November 17th meeting.
Very good find. That is the highest resolution look at the planned terminal configuration that we've seen to date. It has also obviously been slightly revised since the December 2019 version that is still posted on the terminal modernization page on the airport's website. The sterile corridor location from the gates to the FIS is in a slightly different spot, etc. Also has an updated design/construction beginning timeline...
almighty_tuna wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 8:05 pm
I found the most interesting thing so far in that PDF to be the, "New Federal Inspection Service (FIS) facility capable of processing 400 peak hour arriving international passengers." Is Eppley making a play for a couple future international flights?
We've known about this for 3 years now... A lower resolution version of the layout was posted on the airport's website in December of 2019. viewtopic.php?p=310912#p310912
Bellevue Kid wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 7:30 pm
Is Eppley making a play for a couple future international flights?
Potentially. We don't know for certain if they're actually going to build an FIS though. Several years ago Oklahoma City expanded their terminal and planned for and built out a "shell" for an FIS potentially in the future.
So the question is has anything changed on the staffing decision?
ita wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 8:40 pm
Nice catch. Since we've had Toronto in the past, it only makes sense that they do with the future expansion. What other international destinations would make sense for Omaha? Calgary/Edmonton? Montreal? Mexico City?
The Canada airports don't need a FIS as most that you'd be looking at for service have pre-clearance like Toronto. And if Toronto failed to make it you aren't going to see other Canadian destinations tried here. This would basically be for Winter service to Cancún and probably that only based on service to other Midwest destinations.
Thanks for the update, I've always thought Omaha has one of the better mid-sized airports In the country. Another mid-sized Airport I like is Albuquerque's. Looking forward to the renovation and expansion.
Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:55 pm
I'm curious. How many of you drive to Kansas City to fly out of KCI? How many drive to Des Moines to fly Allegiant?
I've got a beater car so I actually take Greyhound to/from KCI and DSM for flights, usually to do a mileage run (or nowadays a segment run) to requalify for elite frequent flyer status. I live in downtown, so I'm only a few blocks from the station anyway. Typical routing is departure from KCI and then final destination OMA.
Omaha Cowboy wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 11:55 pm
Many in our Airport/airline discussion community here, might find this video interesting. Perhaps some of you have taken this flight. I believe the Vlogger filmed this flight just before the Thanksgiving holiday last week-
Ciao..LiO…Peace
Thank y'all so much! Keep watching my videos!
- Red
Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines will become Eppley Airfield’s eighth airline when they begin twice-weekly service between Omaha and Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP) starting Friday, May 26, 2023. Flights will operate on Mondays and Fridays. The schedule for the new service is as follows:
Minneapolis to Omaha Omaha to Minneapolis
Depart: 4:05 PM Depart: 6:10 PM
Arrive: 5:15 PM Arrive: 7:23 PM
*Schedule is subject to change.
Sun Country will fly this new route with a Boeing 737-800 aircraft seating 186 passengers. The flights will operate during the peak summer travel period between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day. Flights are available for purchase beginning today through Sun Country’s website, www.suncountry.com.
Sun Country also running non-stop from KCI to Minneapolis-St Paul. Also on Mondays and Fridays.
I'll be flying on - and filming - the inaugural (outbound to MSP) on 26May. I was also there when they inaugurated the LGA service on American Eagle (oper by Republic) and the jeBlue service to JFK (from KCI).
Omaha Cowboy wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 11:55 pm
Many in our Airport/airline discussion community here, might find this video interesting. Perhaps some of you have taken this flight. I believe the Vlogger filmed this flight just before the Thanksgiving holiday last week-
Ciao..LiO…Peace
Thank y'all so much! Keep watching my videos!
- Red
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