Omaha Eppley Airfield - DISCUSSION

[Brad]

Stephen McCoy - Omaha Airport Authority: April 2025

Lots of great info in that interview!

[Bearcat06]

Is there enough land at eppley to extend any of the runways to accommodate wide body aircraft?

That's a good question, maybe Nuke knows more about what is needed as far as the lead up to the runways here:

Technically, looking at a satellite view, it appears the best options for extension would be 14R/32L and 18/36. It looks like both could possibly be extended 2,500-3,000 feet, but I'm not sure if they'd still be able to accommodate the landing/guidance system equipment then. Lindenburg Plaza would also need to be re-routed or possibly go under the runways for those extensions to be accommodated.

That said, I don't see OMA servicing direct flights to Heathrow or Paris anytime soon so we probably wouldn't need a full 12,000 runway for a fully loaded 787-9 or A350.

[Brad]

Lindenburg Plaza would also need to be re-routed or possibly go under the runways for those extensions to be accommodated.

Can't be re-routed because of the levee, can't go under because of the water table. Also, I'd be surprised if can build a new road under a runway after 9-11.

[damonhynes]

Qatar has flown a 777F in for the horse show at least once (admittedly, they probably cubed out before they weighed out), and the USAF has stationed E4s at OMA when Offutt was rebuilding their runways.

A reason (not the only reason) why DEN's runways are so long is the air density. Interesting side effect of that is that the aircraft tires are subject to high takeoff speeds for a longer time than at sea level, which could conceivably cause a tread separation if the aircraft is fully loaded.

[almighty_tuna]

That said, I don't see OMA servicing direct flights to Heathrow or Paris anytime soon so we probably wouldn't need a full 12,000 runway for a fully loaded 787-9 or A350.

Fully agree. I don't know that the Omaha area will have the base to support any sort of regular trans-Atlantic, much less trans-Pacific flights.

From an infrastructure perspective, San Diego's lone runway is 100ft shorter than Omaha's longest and is a good litmus test of what aircraft can utilize those runway lengths. A 787-8 is fully capable of making the jaunt to, say, London from Omaha and is also used by Japan Airlines to make the San Diego-Tokyo trips. But again, I don't see OMA hosting any sort of regular service to locations not in North America.

[Brad]

During Saturday's Grow Omaha, the guest from Eppley Stephen McCoy, made it sound like the international flights would most likely be Mexico and Caribbean destinations. He said during Q1 (Jan-March) over 150 people a day fly from Omaha to Cancún, obviously not direct.

[joleo]

1-Des moines was only down 1% in March and also had a blizzard a different time than Omaha’s blizzard and the airport was closed an entire day. Wonder why the big difference? Prices maybe? Allegiant was way up in DSM.

2-I saw they are studying extending the streetcar to eppley which would be amazing! Has eppley made a station location provision in their master plan?

3-any provisions for an attached airport hotel in the mater plan? Could one go on west side of Abbott drive and have a lakeside patio and skywalk to the terminal?

[Ben]

When Offutt's runways were closed, they landed AF1, the presidential 747 at Eppley as well... Not sure if it's specially equipped for short runways, but that's certainly one of the largest planes out there... No need to prep for an A380, not coming to Omaha anytime soon...

[GenX]

When Offutt's runways were closed, they landed AF1, the presidential 747 at Eppley as well... Not sure if it's specially equipped for short runways, but that's certainly one of the largest planes out there... No need to prep for an A380, not coming to Omaha anytime soon...

Especially since minimum runway length for an A380 to take off is stated at 9,800' (fully loaded).

[Bob from Omaha]

Trans Atlantic and trans Pacific flights from not hub second tier cities are massively subsidized. St. Louis, Indianapolis, etc. all pay huge bribes for a couple of flights a week. They are a status thing and at most necessary due to a large local company. KC can't seem to get the job done. Any OMA flights to the Caribbean and/or Mexico would be the ones to try for. Maybe Toronto again.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

Trans Atlantic and trans Pacific flights from not hub second tier cities are massively subsidized. St. Louis, Indianapolis, etc. all pay huge bribes for a couple of flights a week. They are a status thing and at most necessary due to a large local company. KC can't seem to get the job done. Any OMA flights to the Caribbean and/or Mexico would be the ones to try for. Maybe Toronto again.

St. Louis did pay a subsidy to Lufthansa to provide service to Frankfort for two years, but that ended last May. The service continues without reduction and they haven't requested a new subsidy since then. they are self-sufficient now. They rank 1st or 2nd (depending on the month) for percent of seats filled per flight among STL's international flights.

[zedmib]

This may be a pipe dream.
1. Negotiate a land swap with Iowa. They get all the land on the Nebraska side of DeSoto lake to the current river channel.
2. In exchange Nebraska gets to rechannelize the Missouri River from just south of the OPPD power plant to bend more east northeast and connect to pigeon creek north of Hamlet lane. Then connect back to the current channel where pigeon creek hits the river.
This would allow for runway extensions at Eppley to handle any possible aircraft. It would also provide a more straight approach for the 16th street river crossing from the Storz expressway to 680.

[Mr.Nuke]

Is there enough land at eppley to extend any of the runways to accommodate wide body aircraft?

That's a good question, maybe Nuke knows more about what is needed as far as the lead up to the runways here:

Technically, looking at a satellite view, it appears the best options for extension would be 14R/32L and 18/36. It looks like both could possibly be extended 2,500-3,000 feet, but I'm not sure if they'd still be able to accommodate the landing/guidance system equipment then.

Sorry for the slow response. Eppley initiated the latest 20-year masterplan in 2011 and it was completed in 2013 or 2014 so we’re about in the middle of it. Obviously as expected, the bulk of the work during that 20 year period was getting ready for (the concrete around all of the gates was replaced, etc) and construction of the terminal modernization project.

However, they did identify a couple of things beyond the scope of the 20-year masterplan or essentially when the airport gets bigger than PAL 3, which was 7 million passengers. One of them was a 3rd parking garage. The other major one is potential expending Runways 36/18 and 32L/14R. 36/18 would be expanded to the South and 32L/14R would be expanded to the Southeast.

Especially without having access to the master plan I’d be careful about making assumptions on why the airport thinks they may need to expand the runways in the future. It very well may not be widebody related…

That said, I don't see OMA servicing direct flights to Heathrow or Paris anytime soon so we probably wouldn't need a full 12,000 runway for a fully loaded 787-9 or A350.

Correct.

Qatar has flown a 777F in for the horse show at least once (admittedly, they probably cubed out before they weighed out), and the USAF has stationed E4s at OMA when Offutt was rebuilding their runways.

Twice on the Qatar 777, the E4B’s went to Lincoln during the rebuilding of Offutt’s runways, but off of the top of my head Omaha has seen 747, 767, now 787 weather diversions. 747’s for WWII honor flights and the delivery of the Asian elephants for the zoo. An Antonov AN-124, and the Nebraska football team taking an A330 to Dublin and back several years ago. Fedex and UPS are both fairly consistently sending 767s to Eppley now too on the cargo side.

A reason (not the only reason) why DEN's runways are so long is the air density.

Correct and again, like I said in my post last Saturday before the runway expansion question came up; takeoff performance is somewhat complicated. However, it is also fairly simple in some ways too. It is basically a combination of the capabilities of the plane, the weight of the plane (passengers, cargo, fuel), and atmospheric conditions. Those factors combined dictate the required runway length.

If performance meets or exceeds the required runway length you are good to go. If it exceeds by a fair margin, you may even derate and or flex takeoff to reduce engine wear by basically telling the plane it doesn’t need to use full power on takeoff.

The thing that all of those widebody examples above have in common is that they’re no where near departing Eppley at MTOW.

[Mr.Nuke]

During Saturday's Grow Omaha, the guest from Eppley Stephen McCoy, made it sound like the international flights would most likely be Mexico and Caribbean destinations

Which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. It’s been discussed multiple times in this thread over the years that based on Kansas City those would likely be the destinations. KC has multiple airlines flying to Cancún, Southwest flying to Cabo and Montego Bay, and Alaska trying Puerto Vallarta. Eppley likely gets at least a couple of takers on Cancún assuming the FIS gets staffed. Beyond that we’ll see.

Prices maybe? Allegiant was way up in DSM.

Presumably yes as a lot of the monthly year-over-year growth came from Allegiant and Frontier. But this is also where you can kind of get into to trouble with numbers easily sometimes too. March of 2023 versus March of 2025 for Eppley was relatively flat at 0.2% growth, but it is only 1.16% average annual growth for Des Moines over the same two years despite the two very different March’s this year.

3-any provisions for an attached airport hotel in the mater plan?

None in anything that they’ve publicly made available.

Could one go on west side of Abbott drive and have a lakeside patio and skywalk to the terminal?

Presumably not. That is a very narrow strip of land with the road and lake being on top of it. There are also likely height restrictions on what can be built there due to the proximity to the airport.

[Greg S]

Anyone remember when there was a hotel at the airport, or at least adjacent to it?

[Bob from Omaha]

Anyone remember when there was a hotel at the airport, or at least adjacent to it?

There were two. One, the Airport Inn, was on the airport property. The other was the Ramada Airport northeast of Abbott & Locust. The Airport Inn was first, built in the early to mid 60s with 60 rooms and had two additions with about 30 rooms each. The Ramada Inn Airport was a high rise with either a restaurant or bar on the top floor.

The Airport Inn was on leased land & the airport kicked them out to expand parking. It was ok. By then it was a dump.

Sorry for the lousy pic. I got it from Douglas GIS.



The Ramada had I think 150 rooms.

[Cermak]

Anyone remember when there was a hotel at the airport, or at least adjacent to it?

There were two. One, the Airport Inn, was on the airport property. The other was the Ramada Airport northeast of Abbott & Locust. The Airport Inn was first, built in the early to mid 60s with 60 rooms and had two additions with about 30 rooms each. The Ramada Inn Airport was a high rise with either a restaurant or bar on the top floor.

The Airport Inn was on leased land & the airport kicked them out to expand parking. It was ok. By then it was a dump.

Sorry for the lousy pic. I got it from Douglas GIS.



The Ramada had I think 150 rooms.

Remember them both, think the Ramada was 5 or 6 floors.

[Greg S]

Yeah Airport Inn was what I was referring too. When I was a kid always wanted to stay there and at the New Tower Inn.

I think the Ramada was around quite a bit longer. We had our homecoming dances there when I was at Central in the early 80's. I want to say the Ramada Inn was around until sometime in the 90's at least.

Anyone remember when they each got torn down?

[guy4omaha]

I remember being at a conference at the Ramada either side of the year 2000. So it was there until at least the late 90s.

[Brad]

I remember being at a conference at the Ramada either side of the year 2000. So it was there until at least the late 90s.

The Ramada is in the 2004 Aerial Photo and not the 2007 Aerial Photo on the GIS site.

[Brad]

I remember being at a conference at the Ramada either side of the year 2000. So it was there until at least the late 90s.

The Ramada is in the 2004 Aerial Photo and not the 2007 Aerial Photo on the GIS site.

Actually we have a thread announcing its closure in 2005.

viewtopic.php?t=2038&hilit=Ramada

Apparently eomaha beat the OWH to the news.

[NEDodger]

OmahaChef called the expansion!

[OmahaRedWing]

Anyone know when the Airport Inn closed and was demolished?

[labguy]

According the The Points Guy, American will be cutting service from Omaha to New York - LaGuardia. https://thepointsguy.com/news/american- ... ew-routes/

However, the added routes and additional flights will come come at the expense of seven routes from LaGuardia. American will cut its current LGA service to Cincinnati and Dayton in Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; Louisville; Minneapolis; Omaha, Nebraska; and Sarasota, Florida, a spokesperson said.

That leaves Delta as the only airline serving New York from Omaha.

[Garrett]

Damn, that’s my normal direct flight.

[joleo]

Damn, that’s my normal direct flight.

Delta without any competition anymore reduced their schedule after American drops it to either 1x daily or 2x daily in the fall now instead of 3x daily they were doing.

So basically OMA-NYC is going from 5x daily this summer (3 Delta, 2 American) to only 1x daily on some days this fall. Prices going to go through the roof which is Delta's MO. Run off the competition then reduce service and raise prices.

[nebport5]

Damn, that’s my normal direct flight.

Delta without any competition anymore reduced their schedule after American drops it to either 1x daily or 2x daily in the fall now instead of 3x daily they were doing.

So basically OMA-NYC is going from 5x daily this summer (3 Delta, 2 American) to only 1x daily on some days this fall. Prices going to go through the roof which is Delta's MO. Run off the competition then reduce service and raise prices.

Ok Southwest, your move..

[labguy]

Damn, that’s my normal direct flight.

Delta without any competition anymore reduced their schedule after American drops it to either 1x daily or 2x daily in the fall now instead of 3x daily they were doing.

So basically OMA-NYC is going from 5x daily this summer (3 Delta, 2 American) to only 1x daily on some days this fall. Prices going to go through the roof which is Delta's MO. Run off the competition then reduce service and raise prices.

Ok Southwest, your move..

LGA is slot-restricted, so Southwest would have to cut other service to add OMA. Under normal circumstances, I would wonder if this would entice United to bring back EWR, but with all the problems they're having right now, I don't think UA is looking to add flights to Newark.

[Mr.Nuke]

April down 5.1%, and down 5.0% YTD
https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... istics.pdf

[skinzfan23]

Wow, another bad month.

[riceweb]

RFP for the new lounge went out last month: https://www.flyoma.com/omaha-airport-au ... se-lounge/

https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... 2025-2.pdf

It will be a "Common-Use Lounge Access"

• Access to the Common-Use Lounge must be available to all passengers, regardless of the level of
  ticket purchased from any airline.
• Access must not be exclusive to members of a particular credit card company

[riceweb]

Wow, another bad month.

Could be lots of reasons, but two things have stood out to me while flying out of Eppley.

• I've encountered several people remarking how miserable it is to fly out of Omaha right now because of all the construction. This is news to me, because the airport is operating almost exactly like it did before. It always operated as basically two separate airports connected by an air-conditioned corridor--this is the least impactful airport construction.
• When you go thru TSA security, they really scrutinize which airline you're on. They must have droves of people going to the wrong terminal right now. If people are just mindlessly walking to the wrong terminal, maybe they can't handle the disruption. And maybe they're just choosing not to fly for the time being.

I don't know how to quantify these things... it's probably not that big of an impact on overall traffic. But I know some people in my circle that get overwhelmed by travel, and I know they'd be the type that would book anywhere else or even skip a vacation or drive instead during the construction.

Of course, the biggest impact was almost certainly a flash dip in business travel due to uncertainty around the tariffs.

[Linkin5]

With numbers also down at other domestic airports I would say this almost certainly has to do with the economic instability in the country.

[PWL73316]

RFP for the new lounge went out last month: https://www.flyoma.com/omaha-airport-au ... se-lounge/

https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... 2025-2.pdf

It will be a "Common-Use Lounge Access"

• Access to the Common-Use Lounge must be available to all passengers, regardless of the level of
  ticket purchased from any airline.
• Access must not be exclusive to members of a particular credit card company

Maybe I'm slow, but how would this work?

[Ben]

RFP for the new lounge went out last month: https://www.flyoma.com/omaha-airport-au ... se-lounge/

https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... 2025-2.pdf

It will be a "Common-Use Lounge Access"

• Access to the Common-Use Lounge must be available to all passengers, regardless of the level of
  ticket purchased from any airline.
• Access must not be exclusive to members of a particular credit card company

Maybe I'm slow, but how would this work?

It will be a non-airline specific lounge (not an "AA Admirals Club"), but rather something that is not tied to a give airline - like a Priority Pass lounge, Capital One Lounge, Amex Centurion - no way we'd get either of the last 2 though, they're sort of higher end.

Members of their specific club networks, as well as any higher status for the airlines would then have access.

[PWL73316]

It says "All passengers", hence my confusion.

[Greg S]

It says "All passengers", hence my confusion.

I thought the same as you.

[riceweb]

This is an example of the type of lounge provider we might get: https://www.plazapremiumlounge.com/en-u ... terminal-e

There aren't many of these common-use lounges, and the RFP wants any provider to have multiple years of experience in this space. So it'll only be a handful of companies that submit an RFP, if any.

[Mr.Nuke]

It says "All passengers", hence my confusion.

Yeah then you are misreading what that bullet point is actually saying. All that first bullet point is basically saying is you can't restrict access to this lounge based on what airline the person purchases the ticket from or what fare they're on i.e. first class or not. It isn't saying anything at all about "all passengers" getting FREE access to the lounge.

like a Priority Pass lounge, Capital One Lounge, Amex Centurion - no way we'd get either of the last 2 though, they're sort of higher end.

Wile I agree on the latter two, the second bullet point in the above bidding criteria specifically says they don't want that either. They're saying you can't restrict access based on a credit card specifically to rule that out.

Members of their specific club networks, as well as any higher status for the airlines would then have access.

There are also several higher end travel oriented credit cards that will give priority pass type access too.

There aren't many of these common-use lounges, and the RFP wants any provider to have multiple years of experience in this space. So it'll only be a handful of companies that submit an RFP, if any.

I think they're more common than what you think just based on the priority pass network alone, but I would agree the RFP is fairly restrictive in what it is asking in that you basically want someone that will join a 3rd party network like priority pass running this. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though. It wasn't as if any airline was going to do it or like Ben said nor would any specific credit card company.

[Dundeemaha]

We get Priority Pass lounge access included with our credit card. While checking in I've noticed there are plenty of people who just pay to get access on that day as well.