Omaha Eppley Airfield - DISCUSSION

[riceweb]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19SEeWEiWR/

"Eppley Airfield set a new all-time monthly passenger record last month, surpassing our previous high from June 2024! "

[Louie]

Incredible to have done that with all the construction.

[nativeomahan]

Well, when you have to (or wish to) travel you have little choice but to do it in spite of all of the ongoing construction. We just allot a few extra minutes of time (and maybe a Xanax) to our travel routines.
It will be nice when things get a lot closer to completion, and some of the new areas can be utilized by travelers.

[Bob from Omaha]

Odds are that you'll have to walk farther, take a tram, ride a long moving sidewalk, etc. if you're going to a larger airport than OMA. It's a bit of an inconvenience but it's still a relatively short trip through Eppley.

[Louie]

Odds are that you'll have to walk farther, take a tram, ride a long moving sidewalk, etc. if you're going to a larger airport than OMA. It's a bit of an inconvenience but it's still a relatively short trip through Eppley.

Completely agree, just relative to how quick it was here prior to the airport getting chopped up.

[riceweb]

I don't think the OMA construction causes any issues or adds any time. Again, it was always effectively two separate airports. Also of note: OMA has greatly increased the number of shuttles they run to the south economy parking lot. It's taking us less time than ever to get around Eppley, because shuttles run so frequently, even late at night.

[Bob from Omaha]

One thing about OMA's expansion. The rental building. While there are some other airports that have similar car rental areas in/next to the terminal like OMA, most still force you to take a shuttle to a remote building. KC's remote building has its entrance in the basement. DSM is building a new remote building but you'll need to take a shuttle. The new or relatively new one at OMA is walkable. For me anyway this is a great idea. Not dealing with the weather, not waiting for a shuttle, that's a great idea. If I'm in a hurry to get to my rental I'd rather not deal with a shuttle.

[Louie]

One thing about OMA's expansion. The rental building. While there are some other airports that have similar car rental areas in/next to the terminal like OMA, most still force you to take a shuttle to a remote building. KC's remote building has its entrance in the basement. DSM is building a new remote building but you'll need to take a shuttle. The new or relatively new one at OMA is walkable. For me anyway this is a great idea. Not dealing with the weather, not waiting for a shuttle, that's a great idea. If I'm in a hurry to get to my rental I'd rather not deal with a shuttle.

Agreed, we are pretty lucky in this regard.

[Greg S]

One thing about OMA's expansion. The rental building. While there are some other airports that have similar car rental areas in/next to the terminal like OMA, most still force you to take a shuttle to a remote building. KC's remote building has its entrance in the basement. DSM is building a new remote building but you'll need to take a shuttle. The new or relatively new one at OMA is walkable. For me anyway this is a great idea. Not dealing with the weather, not waiting for a shuttle, that's a great idea. If I'm in a hurry to get to my rental I'd rather not deal with a shuttle.

Agreed, we are pretty lucky in this regard.

Yeah for the most part I like smaller or midsize airports like Omaha, so much easier to get around. For bigger airports I think Tampa is one that has convenient access to the rental cars.

[nativeomahan]

As a frequent user of Eppley my most recent visit in early August was a bit less confusing than during my June visit. It still requires a lot of extra walking from passenger drop off to the terminal, but the signage is a bit clearer.
Arriving at Eppley and finding your way to the taxi/ride app pickup area has been close to a nightmare, with confusing signage and a maze of striped pathways in the garage, eventually leading you to the far west side of the garage. I can’t wait until these pickup services return to the front driveway close to the terminal.

[Mr.Nuke]

finding your way to the taxi/ride app pickup area has been close to a nightmare, with confusing signage and a maze of striped pathways in the garage, eventually leading you to the far west side of the garage. I can’t wait until these pickup services return to the front driveway close to the terminal.

The ride share/app pickup and drop off likely moves closer to the terminal when the project is done, but everything that has been indicated so far strongly implies it will still be in the garage.

[Louie]

finding your way to the taxi/ride app pickup area has been close to a nightmare, with confusing signage and a maze of striped pathways in the garage, eventually leading you to the far west side of the garage. I can’t wait until these pickup services return to the front driveway close to the terminal.

The ride share/app pickup and drop off likely moves closer to the terminal when the project is done, but everything that has been indicated so far strongly implies it will still be in the garage.

I think you're right, this also matches many other large airports and where they place the rideshare pickup areas.

[GenX]

finding your way to the taxi/ride app pickup area has been close to a nightmare, with confusing signage and a maze of striped pathways in the garage, eventually leading you to the far west side of the garage. I can’t wait until these pickup services return to the front driveway close to the terminal.

The ride share/app pickup and drop off likely moves closer to the terminal when the project is done, but everything that has been indicated so far strongly implies it will still be in the garage.

I think you're right, this also matches many other large airports and where they place the rideshare pickup areas.

As a sometimes Uber driver, the temporary ride app pickup area is a pain, and it's not clearly marked in the app. I get riders all the time waiting at the arrival lanes, and they get frustrated seeing how much further they have to go.

Previously, the ride app pickup area was just inside the south garage at the very end of the commercial lanes on the left side. I imagine they'd put it back where it was. What would be really nice is allowing the next five drivers in the queue to wait in the pickup area so riders don't have to wait for a driver to come up from one of the cell phone waiting lots, where we're required to be in order to be in the queue. They already do something similar at San Diego International, and it's smooth as butter.

[damonhynes]

WN announced OMA-LGA this morning, daily except Sunday. Fills the hole that AA left. In other WN news, they're gutting their DEN and ATL hubs, and whacking STL a bit.

[almighty_tuna]

WN=Southwest for those not up on their airline codes

[Bearcat06]

OMA announcement on SW routes in Spring 2026.

LGA and MIA

[nebport5]

WN announced OMA-LGA this morning, daily except Sunday. Fills the hole that AA left. In other WN news, they're gutting their DEN and ATL hubs, and whacking STL a bit.

Actually it looks like Sunday, but not Saturday(which makes more sense). The flight time isn’t great, nor or the price, but it’s a start.

[Bob from Omaha]

Southwest now lists 16 nonstop destinations. I don't remember San Diego and Miami being on the WN route list before either.

Southwest Route Site

In the above site choose nonstop and pick a city on the left. On the right it will show non stop destinations.

[Uffda]

I am flying in on SW on Sept 4 and wondering if SW is still on north end and if the luggage pickup is still on main level. Then do I still go back up the escalator to get to bridge to car rental?

[Mr.Nuke]

I am flying in on SW on Sept 4 and wondering if SW is still on north end and if the luggage pickup is still on main level. Then do I still go back up the escalator to get to bridge to car rental?

Yes to all three. The only thing different in terms of your past arrivals is that you can't walk to the South side of the terminal internally right now. Per your situation that obviously isn't an issue. Everything should function as it has historically for you based on arriving via Southwest.

[Greg S]

Southwest is growing. They also just announced non stop flights from KC to the Dominican.

Greg

[Mr.Nuke]

Southwest is growing.

Eh? The last quarter as an airline they were down 6.1% passenger wise, half way through there year here they are down 6.6%. Fleet wise as an airline they added 3 planes this past quarter over the previous quarter a year ago, which isn't that significant.

[Bob from Omaha]

Q1 loss $149m ( net loss)
Q2 profit 213m. (Net income)

We live in a changing world & the airline industry isn't stagnant. Southwest is changing. We don't know if for the better or worse.

For context planes are delayed by Boeing. Not a Southwest thing.

Context always helps

[jjjjhskr]

Southwest will be adding flights to LaGuardia (6 days a week) and Miami (seasonal), starting in March 2026

[Bob from Omaha]

Southwest is growing. They also just announced non stop flights from KC to the Dominican.

Greg

I'd say changing some routes.

DSM news from UrbanDSM.com:
Southwest is ending St Louis starting in March and switching it back to Chicago-Midway again at 2x daily.

Southwest has done ok on LAS and PHX from DSM but both DEN and STL were under performing. DEN was reduced from 3x daily to either 1x or 2x daily depending on the month. The time I flew DEN-DSM there were only like 30 people on the plane on southwest.

MDW didn't work well so they switched it to STL and now it is going back to MDW again.
____________________________________________________________

KC news from KCRag.com:

MCI Changes:

MBJ is back(Montego Bay, Jamaica)
CUN is double on Sat/Sun(Cancun)

Cut:
OAKland/SMF(Sacramento)/BURbank

ABQ(Albuquerque) Sunday only
___________________________________________________________

STL cuts from KCRag.com:

DSM
LITtle Rock
CLT
TUL
OKC
ICT(Wichita)

[Bob from Omaha]

July stats. Not lighting the world on fire growth wise but still up a tad. American & Delta up a bit, United up +30% but Southwest down 11%.

July Stats

[skinzfan23]

Over 500,000 for the 2nd consecutive month is solid though, think that is the first time that has been done.

[skinzfan23]

Also just looked at Milwaukee's airport and they don't have stats for July yet but through June, they were only 13% ahead of OMA. For a metro that is over 50% larger, our numbers are pretty good in comparison.

[Mr.Nuke]

Over 500,000 for the 2nd consecutive month is solid though, think that is the first time that has been done.

It should be because as far as I can tell it would only be the 3rd time ever that Eppley was above 500,000 in a month (obviously last month and then June of last year).

Also just looked at Milwaukee's airport and they don't have stats for July yet but through June, they were only 13% ahead of OMA. For a metro that is over 50% larger, our numbers are pretty good in comparison.

Yeah, but that isn't really a fair comparison. They had 20% more passengers last year for for a 63% higher population MSA. The reason why is pretty obvious. They're basically an hour drive from the 7th largest airport by passengers last year in the world. A not insignificant percentage of the MSA is driving to Chicago to avoid a connection or for potentially lower prices. The airport is also a bit of an odd-ball in the sense that it was a now failed hub. Passenger levels peaked there in 2010 had haven't recovered.

Conversely, Eppley benefits from areas outside of the metro statistical area through leakage i.e. ~60 to 70 percent of Lincoln's MSA is flying out of Omaha. Green Bay's MSA is smaller than LNK's but had 163% more passengers last year.

[Bob from Omaha]

Latest chart. KC just posted June. Not sure when they'll post July. KC has bigger issues than posting their stats.

[Louie]

Latest chart. KC just posted June. Not sure when they'll post July. KC has bigger issues than posting their stats.

Any idea what that is? Those are crazy dips.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

OMA is showing a pretty decent increase in seats for Q4 of 2025 compared to other US airports:

[Mr.Nuke]

OMA is showing a pretty decent increase in seats for Q4 of 2025 compared to other US airports:

That should be a pretty good sign for passenger numbers for the rest of the year.

[Bob from Omaha]

KC posted July numbers. They are also not having a great year.

[Mr.Nuke]

KC posted July numbers. They are also not having a great year.

When Southwest basically has 50% market share at your airport and they are way down for the year it isn't too surprising.

[Bob from Omaha]

So in the case of OMA & MCI DL, UA & AA picked up a large percentage of the slack from SW. KC did pick up a few new SW destinations but lost some as well. s

Spirit is hanging on by a thread. Jet Blue as well. Frontier is adding a lot of new routes but just one in OMA. We'll see how that works out. Allegiant is doing some growth. Breeze is questionable in OMA but who knows? I still can't figure out Avelo.
That basically leaves Southwest. The big unknown. Should be an interesting rest of 2025 & 2026.

[joleo]

So in the case of OMA & MCI DL, UA & AA picked up a large percentage of the slack from SW. KC did pick up a few new SW destinations but lost some as well. s

Spirit is hanging on by a thread. Jet Blue as well. Frontier is adding a lot of new routes but just one in OMA. We'll see how that works out. Allegiant is doing some growth. Breeze is questionable in OMA but who knows? I still can't figure out Avelo.
That basically leaves Southwest. The big unknown. Should be an interesting rest of 2025 & 2026.

Below is possible list in OMA (personal list)
United: IAD and/or EWR. Needed for east coast connection and Europe connections.
Delta: Boston and Maybe Austin. Delta has had a ton of growth at both.
American: MIA going to year-round, otherwise in a good spot in OMA.

Breeze: Several options, CHS, TPA, RDU would be the 3 highest as they are big in all 3 cities.

Alaska: Bring back Portland!!! They are growing SAN too so maybe that could come back?

Southwest: Lots of options, they are in order; BWI, SAN switching to daily, LAX, AUS going daily(would rather see Delta), MKE are the highest.

Allegiant is limited unless they turn Omaha into a base like they did DSM. Then OMA would gain 10 more cities on Allegiant really fast...think their route map from DSM which is 22 cities nonstop! That would be amazing as Allegiant is cheap and very well traveled and liked from DSM.
I could see them adding FLL without having to have a base in OMA but Southwest added it a few saturdays to head them off, so far it is working unfortunately.

If OMA did incentives like most other airports do now, they would have a ton more service and possibly an Allegiant base! They should model what DSM does on that. It is good for the long run. Don't model what LNK does, that is excessive and no need to do that!

[TitosBuritoBarn]

If OMA did incentives like most other airports do now, they would have a ton more service and possibly an Allegiant base! They should model what DSM does on that. It is good for the long run. Don't model what LNK does, that is excessive and no need to do that!

I have to disagree. I don't think Omaha is hurting for service given its market size so they should not be incentivize anything if there isn't a need to do so.

Also, Allegiant would not be an airline I would encourage to base at OMA, being an ultra-low-cost leisure airline that mostly flies to secondary airports with little infrastructure. Personally, if I'm going to Disney World, I'll pay a little more and connect through Atlanta before I'll fly direct into Orlando-Sanford on anything ultra-low-cost.

[Bob from Omaha]

OMA never did incentives. Probably never will. Personally I don't think they have to. Would I like to see more destinations? Of course. But incentives cost a ton & don't always work out well. I think it was Smithey who was quoted as saying "We don't offer incentives. We are in pretty constant touch with the airlines, show them the numbers and let them decide."

[Bob from Omaha]

I just noticed something. The new OMA terminal is to be about 650,000 square feet. The new DSM terminal is to be 265,000. Seems rather small. I assume they did all the studies necessary to figure out how much they need/can afford.