Omaha Eppley Airfield - DISCUSSION

[halgy]

A bus route to do that would be a great idea, but the streetcar to the airport isn't feasible.

I have said before a streetcar line down 16th street to airport is a poor choice. In fact, a streetcar running the entire route to the airport would be the wrong mode. But they could build a light rail that could function partially like a streetcar. I would start off with a bus line to get people use to it. In time, you could upgrade to rail. You could even build it in sections.

From the airport it would run with less stops/faster speed. It would run down Abbott Drive until it hits the soccer stadium. From here, it functions more like a streetcar going down 10th to Leavenworth. After Leavenworth, it switches back to light rail mode. Cuts over on Pacific or Williams to 13th. Down to the Zoo and turns around heading North on 10th to repeat the line.

I attached this picture to show spacing of stops. Longer spacing on the ends of the route, short stops on the downtown section.

This was basically my thinking, too (I was even thinking of the same picture). There's nothing to stop for between the airport and the soccer stadium (except maybe the hotels in Carter Lake), so just run it without stops along that part. Even if it only traveled at streetcar top speed, it is like a 6 minute trip so who cares.

The spur to the all the way to the airport definitely isn't the first priority (though I would love to see a short extension to the stadium/Millwork Commons soonish). The airport route would really become valuable after a few other extensions, when more people are connected to the system. IMO, a zoo extension would be more impactful to start, as would one to Council Bluffs. But after that, with tens of thousands of people having direct access to the network plus tens of thousands more having access via bus connections downtown, a fully integrated rail stop would be amazing.

But until then, a bus service would be much appreciated, especially if it was something like an extension of the ORBT, which would extend access across a big bunch of the city.

[Renovator2559]

Does anyone know if there are other airports besides eppley, which are right next a state border?

The Tijuana international airport literally borders the California state line. Many if not most of its customers walk over the border before or after their flights.

Very interesting, I think we found our airport border match, and it's an international border

A bus route to do that would be a great idea, but the streetcar to the airport isn't feasible.

If they had a bus route that went through downtown and into midtown crossing with 5am to 1am schedules. I would take the bus. On top of that, make the busses like the premium buses with leather seats, high headroom buses of LAX flyaway buses and charge around $9 a trip. Make the busses premium with giant logos of Eppley airport and travelers of all types will feel inclined to use the busses. Because current metro busses have inadequate storage for luggage and you need a consistent experience from bus to airplane.





One thing to add though, is that the Flyaway busses only go from LAX to Union station and other stations, no stops in between.

This would probably be more helpful, if there was a proper transit hub in downtown, where the streetcar and busses would pass through, including hotel shuttles. For those passengers, let their bus ride be free; as the included hotel bus shuttle fee would already be included from hotel booking

The only conflict I see is that parking accounts this much for the airports revenue:

Airline revenues
accounted for 34.2% ($11.7 million) of 2006 pledged revenue, parking accounted
for 33.2% ($11.4 million), and rental cars accounted for 12.5% ($4.3 million).

[halgy]

The only conflict I see is that parking accounts this much for the airports revenue:

Have a revenue share between the bus and the airport. Maybe even contract with local hotels to operate as their airport shuttle.

[Bob from Omaha]

The only conflict I see is that parking accounts this much for the airports revenue:

Have a revenue share between the bus and the airport. Maybe even contract with local hotels to operate as their airport shuttle.

Yeah. Because after a long flight I want to wait til the bus stops at 10 other hotels before we get to mine. Also, the older folks would love to shlep their luggage onto a city bus.

Nope. Pass.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

The only conflict I see is that parking accounts this much for the airports revenue:

Have a revenue share between the bus and the airport. Maybe even contract with local hotels to operate as their airport shuttle.

Yeah. Because after a long flight I want to wait til the bus stops at 10 other hotels before we get to mine. Also, the older folks would love to shlep their luggage onto a city bus.

Nope. Pass.

That's fine for you to pass, but what he described is a method in use in touristy cities like Las Vegas and Orlando. I think for for an airport to hotels route they can have the driver help with luggage.

[halgy]

The only conflict I see is that parking accounts this much for the airports revenue:

Have a revenue share between the bus and the airport. Maybe even contract with local hotels to operate as their airport shuttle.

Yeah. Because after a long flight I want to wait til the bus stops at 10 other hotels before we get to mine. Also, the older folks would love to shlep their luggage onto a city bus.

Nope. Pass.

I didn't mean to imply that it would be mandatory.

[skinzfan23]

You can actually see the new beam they placed in the KETV skycam:

[joleo]

United kept pushing off Oma-sfo return, wasn’t sure if it would ever come back. They just loaded it yesterday to return mid-August with much improved flight times. Oma-sfo 4pm. SFO-Oma 9am. Goes back to their placeholder schedule end of September right now but I would guess they will change it too going forward.

[riceweb]

Glad to see OMA-SFO is back, I hope they can add to it with an extra flight each way each day to make connections on the west coast or to east asia easier.

[Renovator2559]

Current progress of Eppley Terminal. First picture is of the canopy project



The following pictures are for the new terminal, from the current south terminal.

[Stargazer]

I assume the pictures on the tarmac side are specifically for the new central utility plant required for the rest of the expansion.

[Bearcat06]

Eppley receiving funding to help with international arrivals facility.

https://ketv.com/article/omaha-eppley-a ... y/60189060

[almighty_tuna]

Every Nebraska representative except Pricketts voted "Yea" for H.R.4366 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, which is the bill that provided the money.

[Renovator2559]

I assume the pictures on the tarmac side are specifically for the new central utility plant required for the rest of the expansion.

Sounds about right.

Also, it's nice to see multiple displays around the airport playing a slide show of the expansion project as well as videos informing passengers of the construction. I hear other passengers starting conversations regarding the construction as soon as they pass through the TSA hall windows facing the construction sites.

Update as of Thu Mar 14.







Canopy construction update:

[skinzfan23]

Hard to tell in the 2nd to last picture but have they installed the glass on the canopy or is that just the beams in place?

[Renovator2559]

Maybe that's the garage walkway glass, which is causing those reflections. No glass for the canopy or the other project are visible at this point at the construction sites

[Bearcat06]

Every Nebraska representative except Pricketts voted "Yea" for H.R.4366 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, which is the bill that provided the money.

He has enough money to fly private. He doesn't care about the poors.

[skinzfan23]

February up 10.4%. YTD up 6.2%
https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

[Bearcat06]

Aerial view of the construction being done provided by OMA's twitter account.

[JDJase]

Larger pic



https://x.com/OMAairport/status/1770125 ... 61198?s=20

[GenX]

Larger pic



https://x.com/OMAairport/status/1770125 ... 61198?s=20

Is that the control tower or just a ramp tower? Do they have any plans to relocate that? Hopefully they’ll go much taller? Even Sioux City’s control tower is taller.

[Mr.Nuke]

Is that the control tower or just a ramp tower? Do they have any plans to relocate that? Hopefully they’ll go much taller? Even Sioux City’s control tower is taller.

Why would Omaha have a ramp Tower? It is in the control tower. Why does the height of the control tower matter? And no, it isn't changing.

[Mr.Nuke]

February up 10.4%. YTD up 6.2%
https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

We'll have to watch, but that may imply that Bob was right about January weather being a bigger issue than I thought it would be.

[Brad]

Is that the control tower or just a ramp tower? Do they have any plans to relocate that? Hopefully they’ll go much taller? Even Sioux City’s control tower is taller.

Why would Omaha have a ramp Tower? It is in the control tower. Why does the height of the control tower matter? And no, it isn't changing.

Unless I am looking at an old photo, Sioux City's tower looks almost identical Biggest difference is that Omaha's is tucked in behind a 2 story building where Sioux City's is out in the open. I agree, there is no reason for it to be any taller. As long as they can see the entire airport from the tower, its tall enough.

[skinzfan23]

I vote that they should build this for the new control tower:



only joking, if anything, maybe they will update some of the technology they use in the control tower, but definitely not building a new one.

[djc311]

Every Nebraska representative except Pricketts voted "Yea" for H.R.4366 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, which is the bill that provided the money.

God, what's that dude's problem?

[SkyWarrior55]

Southwest adding AUS in November

https://thepointsguy.com/news/southwest ... -lax-maui/

https://www.southwest.com/route-map-list-view/

[damonhynes]

Southwest adding AUS in November

https://thepointsguy.com/news/southwest ... -lax-maui/

https://www.southwest.com/route-map-list-view/

Once a week? Seasonal? I guess they're not going after bidness travellers. Hard to tell just who they are going after...

[blueblood]

United kept pushing off Oma-sfo return, wasn’t sure if it would ever come back. They just loaded it yesterday to return mid-August with much improved flight times. Oma-sfo 4pm. SFO-Oma 9am. Goes back to their placeholder schedule end of September right now but I would guess they will change it too going forward.

I looked on the United site and it has the Omaha to SF as 319-511 but the SF to Omaha as 618-midnight

That midnight flight is a killer if they keep that

[Mr.Nuke]

Once a week? Seasonal? I guess they're not going after bidness travellers. Hard to tell just who they are going after...

I mean it is a leisure destination. And Re: leisure destinations, that is kind of their m.o. especially from Omaha. FLL, and TPA are once weekly as well. They've presumably got extra capacity to try stuff like this on the weekends based on scaling down M-F frequencies elsewhere. If it does well and they start getting more planes at some point from Boeing it would probably see increased service just as BNA is about to or MCO does, etc.

I looked on the United site and it has the Omaha to SF as 319-511 but the SF to Omaha as 618-midnight

That midnight flight is a killer if they keep that

What day are you looking at? Picking a couple of random ones I'm still seeing the morning SFO-OMA flight.

Edit: never mind it looks like it shifts to the late arrival on September 26th and an Airbus. That is something to watch, but it also may simply be a placeholder schedule for right now especially as it continues to be scheduled well beyond when they seasonally dropped it last year.

[damonhynes]

Once a week? Seasonal? I guess they're not going after bidness travellers. Hard to tell just who they are going after...

I mean it is a leisure destination. And Re: leisure destinations, that is kind of their m.o. especially from Omaha. FLL, and TPA are once weekly as well. They've presumably got extra capacity to try stuff like this on the weekends based on scaling down M-F frequencies elsewhere. If it does well and they start getting more planes at some point from Boeing it would probably see increased service just as BNA is about to or MCO does, etc.

For two weeks a year (SXSW and the F1 race), AUS is a leisure destination. I instead look at it as a major metro, warts and all just like OMA in a lot of respects.

If I were a LUV shareholder I wouldn't want Southwest to 'try stuff'. To the extreme, LUV could buy a secondhand A380 and do Paducah-Reykjavik--just to see what happens... :-)

Sun Country and Allegiant and Breeze 'try stuff'. Red Way 'tried stuff'. I like to think that LUV does some research first.

[Mr.Nuke]

For two weeks a year (SXSW and the F1 race), AUS is a leisure destination. I instead look at it as a major metro, warts and all just like OMA in a lot of respects.

I'm sure Nashville feels the same way, but when a route is being started 1x a week on a weekend, that by definition is pretty much a leisure destination. As you noted they aren't going after "business" travelers with that. It is designed for people that want to get away aka leisure travelers.

Sun Country and Allegiant and Breeze 'try stuff'. Red Way 'tried stuff'. I like to think that LUV does some research first.

No one is saying they don't. They've got roughly 40% of the Omaha to Austin market share as it stands based on 10% of the tickets sold in the United States and they've got access to 100% of 36% of all tickets sold in Omaha based on last year's traffic. Put another way between their market share and direct access to 10% of everyone else's tickets they've got access to ~42.8% of Omaha's overall ticket data including where people are flying to and what they paid to get there. If anyone has the data to think trying this is viable it is them...

[damonhynes]

My reply got lost in the ether, so here goes:

Thanks for your research, it's comprehensive.

It doesn't matter whether it's Nashville, Austin, Sint Maarten, or Kona, I'm not going to spend a week in one place until the next week's flight comes back to get me. That's just how I roll.

A point I may have mentioned here before, when LUV first announced OMA-BNA: Maybe consumers are willing to fly OMA-BNA and return BNA-MDW-OMA, (and by extension OMA-AUS, AUS-DAL-OMA). I certainly would, I like multi-stop routings.

[NEDodger]

My reply got lost in the ether, so here goes:

Thanks for your research, it's comprehensive.

It doesn't matter whether it's Nashville, Austin, Sint Maarten, or Kona, I'm not going to spend a week in one place until the next week's flight comes back to get me. That's just how I roll.

A point I may have mentioned here before, when LUV first announced OMA-BNA: Maybe consumers are willing to fly OMA-BNA and return BNA-MDW-OMA, (and by extension OMA-AUS, AUS-DAL-OMA). I certainly would, I like multi-stop routings.

Same. I love nonstops, but I’m not going to be heartbroken if I get a nonstop there and one layover back. It’s still an improvement over layovers both ways.

[Mr.Nuke]

It doesn't matter whether it's Nashville, Austin, Sint Maarten, or Kona, I'm not going to spend a week in one place until the next week's flight comes back to get me. That's just how I roll.

I don't think that is how most people roll either.

Maybe consumers are willing to fly OMA-BNA and return BNA-MDW-OMA, (and by extension OMA-AUS, AUS-DAL-OMA).

Yes. Basically if someone wants to go to Austin on a Saturday they are going to see this flight and go oh hey a direct flight. Great. Then they'll fly back to Omaha via whatever connecting airport Southwest offers on the day they want to come back.

[joleo]

Allegiant was doing well in Omaha and they were considering it for a future base. Allegiant was set to announce OMA-FLL last winter, Southwest got wind and added it instead at 1x weekly and scared Allegiant away. They are doing the same thing with 1x weekly OMA-AUS. Southwest is sending a message to Allegiant don't you dare base aircraft in Omaha because we will respond.

This is sad because Allegiant flies to 20 cities from Des Moines and really makes travel really affordable compared to Southwest. My friend just flew nonstop to Orange County from Des Moines and he said with bag fees, they were $170 roundtrip each. He drove to Des Moines from Omaha for the flights for his family.

Omaha is very profitable for southwest, it's in their top 10% of cities for profit, they are making sure it stays this way.

If Allegiant came, prices would go down and Omaha would pick up nonstops to San Diego, Portland, Newark, Ft Lauderdale and probably a few others as well. Maybe Palm Springs and Charleston, SC.

The best way to do this is support Allegiant and stop flying Southwest whenever possible. I avoid both Southwest and Delta because of how they stifle competition.

[Louie]

Allegiant was doing well in Omaha and they were considering it for a future base. Allegiant was set to announce OMA-FLL last winter, Southwest got wind and added it instead at 1x weekly and scared Allegiant away. They are doing the same thing with 1x weekly OMA-AUS. Southwest is sending a message to Allegiant don't you dare base aircraft in Omaha because we will respond.

This is sad because Allegiant flies to 20 cities from Des Moines and really makes travel really affordable compared to Southwest. My friend just flew nonstop to Orange County from Des Moines and he said with bag fees, they were $170 roundtrip each. He drove to Des Moines from Omaha for the flights for his family.

Omaha is very profitable for southwest, it's in their top 10% of cities for profit, they are making sure it stays this way.

If Allegiant came, prices would go down and Omaha would pick up nonstops to San Diego, Portland, Newark, Ft Lauderdale and probably a few others as well. Maybe Palm Springs and Charleston, SC.

The best way to do this is support Allegiant and stop flying Southwest whenever possible. I avoid both Southwest and Delta because of how they stifle competition.

Ugh, that's disheartening to hear that SW is pulling stunts like that which only hurt Omahans.

[skinzfan23]

That is crazy, but if Allegiant were determined to offer the flights for Omaha why wouldn't they expand in the Omaha market more? I don't know a ton about airlines in this regard, is it b/c Southwest is more established and they would worry that their new route wouldn't benefit as much?

Unfortunately that is how business works sometimes. It is a free enterprise, and sometimes that does hurt the consumer.

[damonhynes]

The best way to do this is support Allegiant and stop flying Southwest whenever possible. I avoid both Southwest and Delta because of how they stifle competition.

I've never flown LUV in my life and see no reason to start.

DL has moved on from me and my travel budget, and I was a fanboi for years. I had relatives that worked for them and I had lots of reasons to travel to ATL. But their fares and especially their inflated points redemption matrix have soured me.

[damonhynes]

Ugh, that's disheartening to hear that SW is pulling stunts like that which only hurt Omahans.

It's no different than Red Way cheerfully backing up the truck when LNK was waving bux, and rolling up their red carpet when the money dried up. Just a difference in degrees.

I get it--airlines aren't regulated utilities any longer, they're in business to be mercenary when it comes to making money, see my post about DL. Shortsighted? So's the market. So are consumers, when you get right down to it.