Lincoln Airport (LNK)

[Bob from Omaha]

LNK updated their web site. The good news is that someone found spell check for the air service page. The other news is that they no longer provide a link to board meetings or stats.

[Mr.Nuke]

LNK updated their web site. The good news is that someone found spell check for the air service page. The other news is that they no longer provide a link to board meetings or stats.

Stats haven't been updated since April though.
https://lincolnairport.com/transparency-and-compliance/

[Bob from Omaha]

Before the change they had up to July

[Mr.Nuke]

Before the change they had up to July

I have a feeling it likely gets fixed at some point fairly soon. All of the passenger stats look to have been uploaded in June to this "new" website and it is like someone forgot to go back and update that page before the site went live.

[Mr.Nuke]

Breeze adding Las Vegas and Orange County the latter stopping in LAS.
https://www.1011now.com/2025/11/04/live ... ouncement/

[Bob from Omaha]

Not sure if it was the Lincoln paper or a tv station but I read that the first Breeze flight had 75 passengers. With a 137 seat A200 that's a bit less than 55% full. I don't know about since but that aint great. We'll see.

[Mr.Nuke]

Not sure if it was the Lincoln paper or a tv station but I read that the first Breeze flight had 75 passengers. With a 137 seat A200 that's a bit less than 55% full. I don't know about since but that aint great. We'll see.

We should be able to get actual loads on this route pretty early on when Lincoln starts posting traffic.

[joleo]

Not sure if it was the Lincoln paper or a tv station but I read that the first Breeze flight had 75 passengers. With a 137 seat A200 that's a bit less than 55% full. I don't know about since but that aint great. We'll see.

We should be able to get actual loads on this route pretty early on when Lincoln starts posting traffic.

Flights will do fine over the holiday's, the question is the rest of the year that are not the holiday's, spring break, summer busy season etc.

LNK is also getting American announced today. A friend was at the LNK airport this morning and there is a setup for an announcement. He asked somebody at the airport and was told Dallas and Phoenix. It will be interesting how that affects Grand Island service, think it could hurt GRI quite a bit and also, if it is regional jets which it will be, you need higher fares than mainline flights to break even cost wise so they will need to be higher fares than Omaha, just like United is quite a bit higher fares from Lincoln than Omaha has. It will be a few years before this settles out but I think it may struggle to get the yields that AA needs to make money from Lincoln and without hurting their profitability in Omaha or Grand Island service.

[joleo]

Not sure if it was the Lincoln paper or a tv station but I read that the first Breeze flight had 75 passengers. With a 137 seat A200 that's a bit less than 55% full. I don't know about since but that aint great. We'll see.

We should be able to get actual loads on this route pretty early on when Lincoln starts posting traffic.

Flights will do fine over the holiday's, the question is the rest of the year that are not the holiday's, spring break, summer busy season etc.

LNK is also getting American announced today. A friend was at the LNK airport this morning and there is a setup for an announcement. He asked somebody at the airport and was told Dallas and Phoenix. It will be interesting how that affects Grand Island service, think it could hurt GRI quite a bit and also, if it is regional jets which it will be, you need higher fares than mainline flights to break even cost wise so they will need to be higher fares than Omaha, just like United is quite a bit higher fares from Lincoln than Omaha has. It will be a few years before this settles out but I think it may struggle to get the yields that AA needs to make money from Lincoln and without hurting their profitability in Omaha or Grand Island service.

Edited: Found an article:
https://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2 ... fault.aspx

[labguy]

Here's the announcement: https://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2 ... fault.aspx

Once daily to Chicago and twice daily to Dallas-Fort Worth year-round. Once daily to Phoenix on a seasonal basis.

[Bob from Omaha]

CRJ700

[Greg S]

Here's the announcement: https://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2 ... fault.aspx

Once daily to Chicago and twice daily to Dallas-Fort Worth year-round. Once daily to Phoenix on a seasonal basis.

Wow. That's the biggest news I can remember for Lincoln's airport in years. Didn't realize that American hadn't served Lincoln in over 20 years.

[Mr.Nuke]

It will be interesting how that affects Grand Island service, think it could hurt GRI quite a bit and also, if it is regional jets which it will be, you need higher fares than mainline flights to break even cost wise so they will need to be higher fares than Omaha, just like United is quite a bit higher fares from Lincoln than Omaha has.

I'm not sure how much AA cares about Grand Island for a couple of reasons. Firstly the EAS contract switched from them directly to Skywest there this year. So Skywest has the financial risk there now. Secondly, Skywest is getting paid $5 million a year by the Federal government to fly the route.

It will be a few years before this settles out but I think it may struggle to get the yields that AA needs to make money from Lincoln and without hurting their profitability in Omaha or Grand Island service.

I'm curious what it too financially beyond their new service program to land this though when it took $3.75 million to get Breeze a couple of months, and then obviously what happens when that pot runs out. LNK even omitting Redway doesn't have a great track record lately in that regard.

Once daily to Chicago and twice daily to Dallas-Fort Worth year-round. Once daily to Phoenix on a seasonal basis.

The Chicago route once daily seems odd to me when you've got 4 flights on United today scheduled to bank a hub and a ton of seats 50 miles away to ORD/MDW. Other than price (and presumably there is some subsidy here) or loyalty (not going to be much on the Lincoln side near term), I'm not sure why someone would chose to fly AA there.

Similar situation to some extent with PHX. Yes it is a destination in and of itself, but 1 flight a day doesn't really do much for connections or move the needle given the seats already on the route out of Eppley.

[joleo]

I read on another site that it is all CRJ-700's because there now will be maintenance done on these planes in LNK. That makes more sense now (can somebody confirm?). If that is true, makes more sense to me and the reason for 1x daily to ORD.

[Bob from Omaha]

I am curious about the bribe to AA, if any.

So they are adding 2 a day to DFW, 1 to ORD, 1 to PHX seasonal. CRJ700, with I assume 65 seats.

It's cute that they said the new service is "game changing". 3-4 flights a day? I'm not sure I'd call it game changing but I guess coming from the doldrums LNK was in ok.

This quote kind of made me chuckle. "The addition of American Airlines is predicted to have an around $75 million economic impact in Lincoln, which accounts for a variety of factors ranging from ticket sales, added jobs, hotel stays, aircraft fuel and dollars spent at local stores and restaurants." I buy added jobs and aircraft fuel but how many non-Lincolnites are going to actually stay in a hotel, eat in a restaurant and shop in a store on their way to Lincoln International Airport for a flight? I'm sure there will be some but $75 million a year? Do the math. I did. Even assuming that every single out of town passenger buys a Runza it seems like a pretty big stretch.

[Mr.Nuke]

I read on another site that it is all CRJ-700's because there now will be maintenance done on these planes in LNK. That makes more sense now (can somebody confirm?). If that is true, makes more sense to me and the reason for 1x daily to ORD.

Skywest opened a maintenance facility in Lincoln earlier in the year. The airport announced it would be expanding two weeks ago. Based on the timing of the expansion announcement, that probably wasn't a coincidence. With that said though, without knowing the timing on these flights; theoretically there is a DFW-LNK plane staying overnight that could be worked on i.e. I'm not sure the one off ORD flight has anything to do with Skywest having maintenance at LNK.

United today is all Skywest too. I don't think that necessarily has anything to do with the facility there either. Rather Skywest is largest regional airline, especially post covid, and regional jets are the appropriate sized plane for LNK.

I am curious about the bribe to AA, if any.

Like I said above I am too, because if it took $3.75 million for Breeze a couple of months ago, I'm doubting AA is doing this out of benevolence.

[Bob from Omaha]

Like I said above I am too, because if it took $3.75 million for Breeze a couple of months ago, I'm doubting AA is doing this out of benevolence.

Well, it's part of a 20 route, 16 city announcement by AA. Still I doubt it is benevolence as well.

[Mr.Nuke]

Like I said above I am too, because if it took $3.75 million for Breeze a couple of months ago, I'm doubting AA is doing this out of benevolence.

Well, it's part of a 20 route, 16 city announcement by AA. Still I doubt it is benevolence as well.

For what they are getting i.e. this is them basically paying for 2X daily service to DFW, knowing $1.25 million wasn't good enough as of a 2022 for one DFW flight, knowing said money failed at Houston, knowing what they paid Redway, knowing the EAS contract for DFW-GRI is $5 million/yr, and what they paid Breeze, I'm guessing it is at least Breeze level.

After some further thoughts on it, joelo (or the other website) may be right that the ORD and potentially seasonal PHX add-on is related to rotating planes through for maintenance. We should be able to deduce more on that when these flights actually get loaded to look at timing.

[Bob from Omaha]

Madison Wisconsin is getting a AA BOS flight one a day year round. I am still unclear why OMA doesn't have BOS service. Or EWR or BWI or, the rest of them...

[Mr.Nuke]

Madison Wisconsin is getting a AA BOS flight one a day year round. I am still unclear why OMA doesn't have BOS service. Or EWR or BWI or, the rest of them...

I saw that today Madison presumably is paying $$$ too. EWR comes down to a United choice (arguably less likely with SW going to LGA now too). BWI iffy if Southwest wants to do it. That we can probably take back to the Eppley thread to rehash what has been rehashed for years.

[Mr.Nuke]

United going to 5X daily on LNK-ORD in reponse
https://upgradedpoints.com/news/united- ... ri-cities/

[joleo]

United going to 5X daily on LNK-ORD in reponse
https://upgradedpoints.com/news/united- ... ri-cities/

This was actually loaded at 5x daily for next summer months ago so not a response. A few of the articles are not correct here.

[Big E]

Madison Wisconsin is getting a AA BOS flight one a day year round. I am still unclear why OMA doesn't have BOS service. Or EWR or BWI or, the rest of them...

OMG I miss OMA > EWR on United.

[Louie]

Madison Wisconsin is getting a AA BOS flight one a day year round. I am still unclear why OMA doesn't have BOS service. Or EWR or BWI or, the rest of them...

Oh, I'd kill for a direct to Boston.

[joleo]

Madison Wisconsin is getting a AA BOS flight one a day year round. I am still unclear why OMA doesn't have BOS service. Or EWR or BWI or, the rest of them...

OMG I miss OMA > EWR on United.

This is the LNK thread but yes, if OMA got EWR, I'd use it many times a year and I live in Des Moines vs having to connect in Chicago! It is the largest hole of all the network carriers to their hubs from Omaha.

[Mr.Nuke]

Breeze had 1,222 total passengers in December on (I think?) 14 flights. That would be about 87 passengers per flight or a load factor of 64%.

https://lincolnairport.com/wp-content/u ... -Stats.pdf

[Ben]

Flew in/out of Lincoln this week, given that prices for a family trip (going overseas connecting through Chicago O'Hare on United) were >$100/person cheaper vs Omaha for some reason. Very impressed with their remodel. General look and feel was very nice. And given size, its super easy to park/get around.

Another nice benefit - United flew the CRJ550 from Chicago. That's the newest of their regional jet fleet - 3 classes of seats, a storage locker for more big bags on the plane, and generally more space that the CRJ700 (same size, but significantly less seats). I think its 70 vs 55....

[joleo]

How was breeze in Jan and Feb in lincoln? Anybody have the numbers or do the math?

[riceweb]

Flew in/out of Lincoln this week, given that prices for a family trip (going overseas connecting through Chicago O'Hare on United) were >$100/person cheaper vs Omaha for some reason. Very impressed with their remodel. General look and feel was very nice. And given size, its super easy to park/get around.

Another nice benefit - United flew the CRJ550 from Chicago. That's the newest of their regional jet fleet - 3 classes of seats, a storage locker for more big bags on the plane, and generally more space that the CRJ700 (same size, but significantly less seats). I think its 70 vs 55....

And some connections are only available now via Lincoln. If you have a specific flight you're looking for on United or American, you definitely want to search both Omaha and Lincoln because the subtle timing differences impact which connections you can make.

[Mr.Nuke]

How was breeze in Jan and Feb in lincoln? Anybody have the numbers or do the math?

January was 109 passengers per flight or a load factor of 80%.

[Mr.Nuke]

‘Paying off in a big way’: LNK Airport breaks 20-year record amid new airline successes
https://www.1011now.com/2026/08/14/payi ... successes/

[CrankyOldDude]

Nuke, you at one time were able to extrapolate load factors. Now that LNK has finally updated their stats on their web site maybe you could let us know how they are doing?

[Mr.Nuke]

Nuke, you at one time were able to extrapolate load factors. Now that LNK has finally updated their stats on their web site maybe you could let us know how they are doing?

With everyone flying to multiple destinations out of there now, we have to wait for the DOT data, which lags about three months. Below is Breeze this year through May. I should have the first month for AA within the next month once we get the June DOT data.

January
LNK-MCO 70.7%
MCO-LNK 70.8%

February
LNK-MCO 74.8%
MCO-LNK 68.3%

March
LNK-MCO 78.8%
MCO-LNK 83%

April
LNK-MCO 66.8%
MCO-LNK 68.5%

LNK-LAS 64.3%
LAS-LNK 55.4%

May
LNK-MCO 72.3%
LNK-MCO 72.8%

LNK-LAS 65.3%
LAS-LNK 65.1%

---
For reference in May OMA-MCO was 83.6% on SW, SFB was 88.8% of Allegiant, OMA-LAS was 75.5% on SW, 92.8% on Allegiant.

[CrankyOldDude]

Interesting that Allegiant flew GRI-MCO or SFB, can't remember, for a short time. I wonder why they haven't tried again. Unless it just isn't as profitable as elsewhere.

[Mr.Nuke]

Interesting that Allegiant flew GRI-MCO or SFB, can't remember, for a short time. I wonder why they haven't tried again. Unless it just isn't as profitable as elsewhere.

They flew to SFB in 2016. The loads weren't great especially for them and it never came back.