Eppley Airfield

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Eppley Airfield
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IATA: OMAICAO: KOMAFAA LID: OMA
Summary
Owner/Operator Omaha Airport Authority
Serves Eastern Nebraska, western Iowa
Location Omaha, Nebraska
Elevation AMSL 984 ft / 300 m
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Website www.flyoma.com
Map
OMALocation in Nebraska
OMA is located in Nebraska
OMA
OMA
Location in Nebraska
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14R/32L 9,502 2,896 Asphalt/Concrete
14L/32R 8,500 2,591 Concrete
18/36 8,154 2,485 Asphalt/Concrete
Statistics (2009, 2010)
Passengers (2013) 4,042,333
Aircraft operations (2009) 111,155
Cargo in pounds (2013) 93,000,000
Mail in pounds (2013) 51,000,000
Sources: FAA[1] and airport web site[2]

Eppley Airfield (IATA: OMAICAO: KOMAFAA LID: OMA) is a medium hub airport three miles northeast of Omaha, Nebraska, in Douglas County, Nebraska, United States. It is by far the largest airport in Nebraska, serving ten times more passengers than all other Nebraska airports combined, and is named for Eugene C. Eppley, the Eppley Hotel magnate of Omaha, from whose estate $1.0 million was used to convert Omaha Municipal Airport into a jetport in 1959/1960.[3]

The airport occupies 2,650 acres (1,070 ha) and handles about 70-75 airline flights per day to 20 daily and 3 seasonal non-stop destinations.[4]

History

The April 1957 OAG shows 42 scheduled airline departures a day: 23 United and 19 Braniff. The first jets were United Airlines 720s in Aug-Sept 1960.

On August 6, 1966 Braniff Airways Flight 250 left Kansas City Downtown Airport headed for Eppley and crashed near Falls City, Nebraska, killing all 42 on board. The flight was waiting for weather to clear in Omaha before descending when violent turbulence compromised the structural integrity of the plane.[5]

Several films have used Eppley for a few scenes including the 2002 feature film About Schmidt which included scenes filmed inside and outside the terminal building, and the 2009 feature film Up in the Air which made use of the south end of the terminal building during filming.

The terminal building, opened in 1961, was designed by James C. Buckley, Inc.[6] Concourse B opened in 1970,[7] and it was remodeled in 1986 while Concourse A opened in 1986.[8]

Midwest Airlines, then known as Midwest Express, once had a focus city at Eppley Airfield with flights to Milwaukee, WI, Newark, NJ, Kansas City, MO, Los Angeles, CA, and Washington Reagan; nonstops to Milwaukee and Washington Reagan lasted until the merger with Frontier Airlines in 2010.[9] As of April 2015, Omaha has no international flights. The airport handled more than 4.1 million passengers in 2014. Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines are the first-, second-, and third-largest carriers and serve about 33 percent, 22 percent, and 22 percent, respectively, of passengers.[2]

Expansion

Current

Parking Garage

On February 18, 2015, The Omaha Airport Authority board approved the plan for design work to begin on an approximately $71 million, six-story parking garage. The new garage is to be built north of the existing six-story garage, and construction on the first project would begin in about a year. The project will be expected to be completed in fall 2017. The first phase would provide 2,200 parking stalls, with 850 stalls for rental cars and 1,350 public stalls. [10]

Location

The airport is northeast of downtown Omaha in east Omaha. Although the airport is in Nebraska on the west side of the Missouri River, it is surrounded on the east, west and south by the state of Iowa: the Missouri River formerly formed an oxbow west of the land that became Eppley Airfield. The river cut off the oxbow during an 1877 flood, leaving behind Carter Lake on a portion of its former course; the Supreme Court ruled in 1893 that though the land cut off by the river's changed route now lay west of the Missouri, it remained part of Iowa. This land eventually became the city of Carter Lake, Iowa.[11]

Terminals

Central Terminal

The Central Terminal contains the ground transportation center and rental car counters.

The Gate System

The gate system of Eppley Airfield is a "running total system". This means that when a new concourse begins, the gate number does not reset to 1 with the prefix of the Concourse's letter. For example, in Omaha, the gates go from A10 to B11, there is no B1, as the running total keeps the number going with a different prefix.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines Destinations Concourse
Alaska Airlines
operated by SkyWest Airlines
Portland (OR) (begins February 19, 2016),[12] Seattle/Tacoma A
Allegiant Air Orlando/Sanford, St. Petersburg/Clearwater
Seasonal: Oakland
A
American Airlines Dallas/Fort Worth, Phoenix A
American Eagle Charlotte, Chicago–O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth A
Delta Air Lines Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis/St.Paul
Seasonal: Salt Lake City
A
Delta Connection Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York–LaGuardia, Salt Lake City, Washington–National A
Frontier Airlines Denver
Seasonal: Orlando
B
Southwest Airlines Chicago–Midway, Dallas–Love, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, St. Louis, Washington–National (begins March 10, 2016)[13]
Seasonal: Los Angeles, Orlando
B
United Airlines Chicago–O'Hare, Denver
Seasonal: Houston–Intercontinental
B
United Express Chicago–O'Hare, Denver, Houston–Intercontinental, Newark B

Cargo

Airlines Destinations
Ameriflight Beatrice, Grand Island, Kearney, Norfolk
AirNet Express Des Moines
FedEx Express
operated by Baron Aviation Services
Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte
FedEx Express Memphis, Indianapolis
DHL Aviation operated by Suburban Air Freight Cincinnati
UPS Airlines Billings, Louisville, Winnipeg

Statistics

Top domestic destinations

Busiest domestic routes from OMA (October 2014 - September 2015)[14]
Rank City Passengers Carriers
1 Denver, CO 294,000 Frontier, Southwest, United
2 Chicago, IL (ORD) 223,000 American, United
3 Chicago, IL (MDW) 205,000 Southwest
4 Atlanta, GA 196,000 Delta
5 Dallas, TX (DFW) 180,000 American
6 Phoenix, AZ 162,000 Southwest, US Airways
7 Minneapolis/St Paul, MN (MSP) 156,000 Delta
8 Las Vegas, NV 117,000 Southwest
9 St. Louis, MO 100,000 Southwest
10 Houston, TX (IAH) 70,000 United

Annual traffic

Annual passenger traffic (enplaned + deplaned) at Omaha, 2002 thru 2014[15]
Year Passengers Year Passengers
2010 4,287,428
2009 4,217,718
2008 4,370,137
2007 4,421,274
2006 4,229,856
2005 4,193,046
2014 4,119,730 2004 3,868,217
2013 4,042,333 2003 3,667,190
2012 4,127,344 2002 3,608,231
2011 4,212,399

Ground transportation

MAT Line 16[16] provides limited weekday-only rush hour service southbound toward downtown and northbound toward the North Omaha Transit Center. Passenger access is located directly outside the central terminal.

Gallery

References

  1. FAA Airport Master Record for OMA (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-10-25
  2. 2.0 2.1 Eppley Airfield, official web site
  3. Eppley Grant of $1 Million Gives Omaha Jet Field - Lincoln Evening Journal, 1959-12-31
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  9. Frontier and Midwest airlines merge
  10. Omaha World Herald. "Easing the Parking Crunch: 6-story, 2,200-stall Garage Coming to Eppley Airfield in 2017." Omaha.com. Omaha World Herald, 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://www.omaha.com/money/easing-the-parking-crunch--story--stall-garage-coming/article_790a6390-b6d2-11e4-9734-039b1a169392.html>.
  11. Nebraska v. Iowa, 406 U.S. 117 (1972).
  12. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/alaska-airlines-announces-daily-flying-120000995.html;_ylt=AwrC1Cj.yLpVkzEAJUjQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBybGY3bmpvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--
  13. http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Southwest-Airlines-Announcement-321401421.html
  14. http://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=OMA&Airport_Name=Omaha,%20NE:%20Eppley%20Airfield&carrier=FACTS
  15. Annual Traffic Statistics. Retrieved on Apr 3, 2015.
  16. http://www.ometro.com/bus-system/bus-routes/east-omaha-north-16th-weekdays-only

External links