Omaha Eppley Airfield

[NovakOmaha]

Yeah, ok, whatever.

On a more Eppley-related note, Holder Construction has an Eppley specific web site and it appears that we are about to see progress. Take a look at the Project Updates link:

Holdler Eppley Project Page

[OmahaJaysCU]

Ahhhh is this new? Anyone else see the connection between the concourse and terminal on the north end? Because it sure as heck looks like customs. Came from the Terminal Modernization tab on fly oma

[flick70]

I really do not like this design. They should build out to the North for some symmetry. It would also make both garages more assessible to the main portion of the terminal. I was hoping those diagrams were a preliminary sketch, but it looks pretty much a done deal by looking at that powerpoint. OAA, PLEASE go back to the drawing board!

[Mr.Nuke]

On a more Eppley-related note, Holder Construction has an Eppley specific web site and it appears that we are about to see progress. Take a look at the Project Updates link:

Holdler Eppley Project Page

Good find. Looks like we should potentially be getting some drawings in July. The power point on there also has a ton of information on timing and phasing that we previously did not have access to.

Ahhhh is this new?

No. The original image on that page was posted on the airport's website in December of 2019. The one you found was posted earlier this year.

Anyone else see the connection between the concourse and terminal on the north end? Because it sure as heck looks like customs. Came from the Terminal Modernization tab on fly oma

Yes. It is and see above we've known about the since 2019. It still remains to be seen whether they actually build it and CBP staffs it or if they're building a shell like what Oklahoma City did.

[NovakOmaha]

I have zero inside info but it appears that the drawings are old and not finalized. The original renderings were quite different than those on the OMA web site.

I've got the old pdf if anyone wants me to send it and you can post it.

[Mr.Nuke]

I have zero inside info but it appears that the drawings are old and not finalized.

Yeah, I mean we know they aren't. Per the website you found Holder will release the 80% construction documents in July. Those should be fairly close to being finalized at that point with the final documents to follow in November. Additionally it looks like they have a new set of drawings as of 5/1 that hopefully we may get to see at some point.

​
Terminal Expansion/Renovation Design Development Drawings for Budget Update: RELEASED 5/1/2023

As to how old what we are seeing is, we know the current image on the airport authority's site was uploaded this January.
https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... ersion.jpg

It replaced the 2019 version here.
https://www.flyoma.com/wp-content/uploa ... ncepts.jpg

The two are still pretty similar. Small change to the shape of the FIS sterile corridor and the 2023 one has things a bit more fleshed out in terms of retail locations, etc.

We've seen similar images in the November 2022 PFC application as well as the February 2023 Holder power point. The latest three haven't changed all that much so I have a feeling it is probably a pretty good representation of where things are going to be overall.

The original renderings were quite different than those on the OMA web site.

I've got the old pdf if anyone wants me to send it and you can post it.

Which ones are you thinking of here? The only other pdf I'm aware of (aside from the PFC) was the Airport's Terminal development day from 2018. And if that is the one you are thinking of, obviously anything rendering wise from there should basically be disregarded at this point as it was conceptual masterplan stuff and not anything Holder or Corgan had actually come up with.

------
The ones I want to see are what Corgan has come up with rendering wise as that will give the actual feel for the direction the new terminal is heading.

[thenewguy]

It will be great to have it all be one large area, rather than split between the two. This will allow for some better options, retail wise, as well as food wise. Anytime I fly, I always hear people from out of town comment on how nice the airport is, but that it lacks food options and isn't very big. This would do wonders to address that.

[Louie]

It will be great to have it all be one large area, rather than split between the two. This will allow for some better options, retail wise, as well as food wise. Anytime I fly, I always hear people from out of town comment on how nice the airport is, but that it lacks food options and isn't very big. This would do wonders to address that.

Very good point. Along with just a better/faster security process being that it will be centralized.

[NovakOmaha]

The one thing I don't think is going to happen is upper and lower roads splitting departures and arrivals. There was a bit of talk of that years ago but nothing since.

[Mr.Nuke]

Apples and oranges somewhat. Take a look at the story and pay attention to the list of cities UAL dropped. Every one is a very small market.

But note the reason they're being dropped. They've still got roughly 100 regional planes parked due to a lack of pilots.
https://simpleflying.com/regional-pilot ... nited-ceo/

You can't solely cut your way out of that. So yes they pulled completely out of some smaller regional markets.


In other markets like Omaha they're up-gauging what had been a regional/mainline mix to primarily mainline. This isn't without consequences. OMA-SFO's loads have been pretty bad since it resumed as the mainline airbus is arguably to big of a plane for that route right now. But it is seemingly a choice of whether to deploy the bigger plane or nothing at all.

And then you also have a mix of both where they're obviously staying in markets but still not flying all of the routes i.e. OMA-EWR. Massively shifting around planes and having ~100 not able to operate means some stuff like OMA-EWR is going to have to be put on the backburner.

I'm looking for service to EWR, for example. It's a gateway.

And if they had staffing to operate all of the planes currently parked, I have a feeling it would be operating which is kind of the point. It is going to be really difficult to see new destinations in the current environment right now.

I'd say why isn't Jetblue serving OMA but a cursory look at their load factor from MCI leads me to believe that maybe it isn't worth it.

They're also a bit occupied with the NEA alliance getting struck down by the courts over the weekend and trying to close their merger with Spirit. If the ruling holds they're going to potentially have to replan their Northeast network for this summer on the fly.

[Mr.Nuke]

Allegiant has the second largest pax percentage at DSM through March of this year at 22%. Fairly small?

Yes in the context of comparing Allegiant’s operations out of Des Moines to this near airport in Lincoln having 14 to 22% over the overall traffic in a multi-carrier environment seems pretty different than having being an airline that has never flown scheduled passenger service suddenly trying to double the number of seats to a currently single carrier airport.

What is/was the PDEW for DSM-Palm Springs CA? How about the others?

Palm Springs is one of the weaker ones for sure, but it was showing up in Winter months for Des Moines before the route started operating. PDEW as we’ve discussed has a big limitation in Allegiant like operation too that something that may not look impressive i.e. 35 passengers a day has the potential to actually be 70 passengers on a Saturday. With the latter obviously being much more appealing for a one off weekly flight.

As for Lincoln, What info do you have regarding the choice of destinations for the new airline from Lincoln?

About 20 years of PDEW that may be understating the market, but I don’t think Lincoln or these guys have much better data than PDEW. This is another area where it is a pretty different situation than Allegiant. An existing airline not only the 10% of overall ticket data that PDEW summarizes, but they’ve also got their own sales databases i.e. Allegiant or Southwest, etc. would have a much better idea of the true LNK market due to knowing exactly where people in LNK are flying through Omaha to.

Are you alleging that LNK and their airline partner did zero research prior to the announcement?

No. If you were going to launch multiple destinations outside of Des Moines the ones they picked show up on PDEW over the past years. I’m suggesting it is a leap of faith to see 20 people flying from LNK-XXX on average and thinking you are going to fill 140 seats 3 times a week based off of that.

What does it matter what the gates/counter space situation is at the outstations? Are you saying that this as well hasn't been thought out or planned? I have no information as to the planning but I'd guess that at the very least a couple of phone calls were made.

Look in general to where Allegiant flies. Yeah they’ve been moving into bigger airports over the past couple of years, but more often not, they’ve built themselves by following the low cost carrier model of operating into smaller airports i.e. Mesa instead of PHX, Punta Gorda and Clearwater instead of Tampa, Sanford instead of MCO, etc. It is cheaper to operate in and out of those airports.

These guys aren’t following that model. They’re operating directly into bigger airports. You theoretically are still renting gate space, check in space, etc. Those costs are going to add up and it also makes you less nimble than you’d think. This is all stuff these guys have never dealt with before as solely a charter operator.

Do you walk away from an existing lease right away when a market goes bad? Find a new airport and start the process all over? Does the new airport time the same way into the existing operation? Remember it looks like they've worked this out to use a single plane.

Lastly, with regard to filling seats "all of a sudden, out of nowhere", I'd posit that the fares are cheap and the chosen destinations are mostly leisure. I'd say there is a demand for them.

I’m assuming they’d still like to make money too. I can get a $29 fare on some of their flights for next month. That will pay about 3 minutes of fuel for them taxing.

[Mr.Nuke]

It will be great to have it all be one large area, rather than split between the two. This will allow for some better options, retail wise, as well as food wise.

Yep, we've been discussing this for some time here with the unified terminal design. Hopefully the current concession vendor has nothing to do with the new terminal.

[thenewguy]

it would be fantastic to have a simple breakfast place, godfathers, pretzel place, scooters, etc.

have there been any renderings that show the front elevation at all? One hope I have for the design would be some more skylight action, maybe a little higher ceiling to open it up visually.

[TransitOriented]

it would be fantastic to have a simple breakfast place, godfathers, pretzel place, scooters, etc.

And a craft beer place

[Mr.Nuke]

it would be fantastic to have a simple breakfast place, godfathers, pretzel place, scooters, etc.

Hoping they aim slightly higher Godfather's and Scooter's are already there now in 3 separate spots each.

have there been any renderings that show the front elevation at all? One hope I have for the design would be some more skylight action, maybe a little higher ceiling to open it up visually.

Nope we just have various versions of that top down view showing generally what is going to be where.

[thenewguy]

it would be fantastic to have a simple breakfast place, godfathers, pretzel place, scooters, etc.

Hoping they aim slightly higher Godfather's and Scooter's are already there now in 3 separate spots each.

have there been any renderings that show the front elevation at all? One hope I have for the design would be some more skylight action, maybe a little higher ceiling to open it up visually.

Nope we just have various versions of that top down view showing generally what is going to be where.

yeah, I would like there to be something a little more substantial than what we already have. Part of me was being sarcastic, but there's also a part of me that thinks that they would like to promote Omaha chains. It'd be great if they had a Runza in there (even though it's not technically Omaha). A mama's/sortino's type place would be fantastic, too

[joleo]

Gosh, I just hope they really showcase the local restaurant scene after the remodel! And most airports have Starbucks now so I guess you have to go there too. Please, no KFC, Burger King, Godfathers etc etc.

That said, look at the Westroads food court for initial ideas. Airports can really showcase a city, not just a mode of transportation. Some cities have really got this right!

As soon as you have full service restaurants, the airport can work with Southwest to allow connections at Eppley which will push numbers up. Right now only 1-stop, no deplaning is allowed on southwest at Eppley. OKC allows connections for example as the terminal is a full service terminal with lots of good options.

I'm surprised there hasn't been any updated designs or public information/ gathering secessions.

[NovakOmaha]

I've asked Nuke before & didn't get an answer. OMA went from 3.6M to 5+M. Pent up demand? PDEW unmet?

What are the underserved markets currently for OMA?

[Mr.Nuke]

2022 Q4 PDEW

Phoenix 339
Denver 293
Chicago 265
Las Vegas 260
Dallas 234
Los Angeles 230
Washington D.C. 198
New York City 183
Orlando 180
Atlanta 166
Houston 148
San Francisco 135
Seattle 121
Tampa 110
Miami 95
Nashville 82
San Diego 80
Minneapolis 79
Boston 78
Charlotte 73
Detroit 69
St. Louis 68
Philadelphia 56
Austin 53
Portland 52
San Antonio 50
Raleigh/Durham 49
Sanford Fl 39
New Orleans 38
Sacramento 38
Jacksonville 31
Pittsburgh 27
Columbus 26
Cleveland 25
Cincinnati 25
Fort Myers 23
Indianapolis 23
Hartford 22
Tucson 22
Charleston 21
Sarasota/Bradenton 20

[NovakOmaha]

I've asked Nuke before & didn't get an answer. OMA went from 3.6M to 5+M. Pent up demand? PDEW unmet?

[thenewguy]

*is* Omaha over 5M? if you average out the PDEW on the list above, it'd be just over 3M (right?) Are the numbers above not representative of everyone flying in/out of Omaha? honest question.

[NovakOmaha]

*is* Omaha over 5M? if you average out the PDEW on the list above, it'd be just over 3M (right?) Are the numbers above not representative of everyone flying in/out of Omaha? honest question.

I meant over 5M in 2018 & 2019. Let's remember that this PDEW business is not some constant. It's similar to the top 1% richest people in the US. The list changes. So PDEW goes up and down. Demand is not absolute. The economy changes. Business changes.

But whatever. Let's build a utilitarian airport without any bells and whistles. Let other cities do that.

[thenewguy]

*is* Omaha over 5M? if you average out the PDEW on the list above, it'd be just over 3M (right?) Are the numbers above not representative of everyone flying in/out of Omaha? honest question.

I meant over 5M in 2018 & 2019. Let's remember that this PDEW business is not some constant. It's similar to the top 1% richest people in the US. The list changes. So PDEW goes up and down. Demand is not absolute. The economy changes. Business changes.

But whatever. Let's build a utilitarian airport without any bells and whistles. Let other cities do that.

no no no, I am not insinuating we shouldn't do anything forward thinking based on passenger counts (I'd love to see a more modern design and updated amenities), I was strictly asking because i didn't know if i was understanding it correctly.

[Mr.Nuke]

Gosh, I just hope they really showcase the local restaurant scene after the remodel! And most airports have Starbucks now so I guess you have to go there too. Please, no KFC, Burger King, Godfathers etc etc.

Airport food is tricky. I think there is a place for the McDonald's, Burger Kings, et al. of the world. If you go 100% local or vague conceptual restaurants like some airports, if you are traveling through from out of town figuring out where to eat can become a chore. There is also something to be said for familiarity. It is largely the same reason said restaurants tend to be at various interstate exits. I know what I'm getting from McDonald's I know it isn't going to be great, but I know it is going to come out fairly soon; something for a person like me at Eppley is pretty important.

The other hard part of the local restaurant scene in general is getting some of the concepts to translate over. O'Hare has an outpost of the city's famous Mexican cuisine chef Rick Bayless. The O'Hare restaurant (awesome for airport food by the way) only serves variations of the Mexican torta sandwich and chips and salsa/guac. The tortas come out within minutes.

Your favorite Omaha pizza place isn't going to work unless they are either a) selling pre maid slices or b) coming up with some kind of frozen offshoot that cooks in 2 minutes in an oven i.e. an airport Wolfgang Puck restaurant that probably is going to do a disservice to said place's original location. Whatever it is needs to be able to get food out within 5 minutes especially at a place like Eppley.

That said, look at the Westroads food court for initial ideas. Airports can really showcase a city, not just a mode of transportation. Some cities have really got this right!

Someone suggested something like Flagship Commons at Westroads in this thread last year and I think that is a great idea. They provide multiple concepts in a single spot and get food out relatively quick.

As soon as you have full service restaurants, the airport can work with Southwest to allow connections at Eppley which will push numbers up. Right now only 1-stop, no deplaning is allowed on southwest at Eppley. OKC allows connections for example as the terminal is a full service terminal with lots of good options.

A full service restaurant (thinking in terms of like a 45 minute meal) would struggle. People still know if you have precheck and a carry on that you can show up less than an hour before your flight here and by fine. Southwest isn't going to connect people through here when you are in the middle of Denver and Chicago/St. Louis, and now even KC to an extent where they do connect a ton of people through. They have no reason to connect people here.

I'm surprised there hasn't been any updated designs or public information/ gathering secessions.

I'm not on the latter. I'm a bit on the former. Based on where they are with the construction documents, the architectural renderings are in all likelihood done.

[joleo]

Gosh, I just hope they really showcase the local restaurant scene after the remodel! And most airports have Starbucks now so I guess you have to go there too. Please, no KFC, Burger King, Godfathers etc etc.

Airport food is tricky. I think there is a place for the McDonald's, Burger Kings, et al. of the world. If you go 100% local or vague conceptual restaurants like some airports, if you are traveling through from out of town figuring out where to eat can become a chore. There is also something to be said for familiarity. It is largely the same reason said restaurants tend to be at various interstate exits. I know what I'm getting from McDonald's I know it isn't going to be great, but I know it is going to come out fairly soon; something for a person like me at Eppley is pretty important.

The other hard part of the local restaurant scene in general is getting some of the concepts to translate over. O'Hare has an outpost of the city's famous Mexican cuisine chef Rick Bayless. The O'Hare restaurant (awesome for airport food by the way) only serves variations of the Mexican torta sandwich and chips and salsa/guac. The tortas come out within minutes.

Your favorite Omaha pizza place isn't going to work unless they are either a) selling pre maid slices or b) coming up with some kind of frozen offshoot that cooks in 2 minutes in an oven i.e. an airport Wolfgang Puck restaurant that probably is going to do a disservice to said place's original location. Whatever it is needs to be able to get food out within 5 minutes especially at a place like Eppley.

That said, look at the Westroads food court for initial ideas. Airports can really showcase a city, not just a mode of transportation. Some cities have really got this right!

Someone suggested something like Flagship Commons at Westroads in this thread last year and I think that is a great idea. They provide multiple concepts in a single spot and get food out relatively quick.

As soon as you have full service restaurants, the airport can work with Southwest to allow connections at Eppley which will push numbers up. Right now only 1-stop, no deplaning is allowed on southwest at Eppley. OKC allows connections for example as the terminal is a full service terminal with lots of good options.

A full service restaurant (thinking in terms of like a 45 minute meal) would struggle. People still know if you have precheck and a carry on that you can show up less than an hour before your flight here and by fine. Southwest isn't going to connect people through here when you are in the middle of Denver and Chicago/St. Louis, and now even KC to an extent where they do connect a ton of people through. They have no reason to connect people here.

I'm surprised there hasn't been any updated designs or public information/ gathering secessions.

I'm not on the latter. I'm a bit on the former. Based on where they are with the construction documents, the architectural renderings are in all likelihood done.

How the Southwest model works is a bit difficult to explain.
1st - Any airport that has full service array of restaurants etc, is eligible for connections, regardless of geography of close proximity to another southwest airport.
2nd - If the connecting flight either takes off later, or arrives earlier than either a nonstop or connecting through another city, it is offered and sold as a connection. Really study it at southwest.com doing fake booking and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Example, Southwest might offer 6x daily from St Louis to Denver nonstop. they will also sell connections if the times work with their algorithm when there are gaps with the nonstop times. If the connection through Kansas city has a 2.5 hour layover but a connection through Oklahoma City has a 1 hour connection and the times work out, the Kansas city connection won't even show up but the Oklahoma City one does. It varies all over the board month to month what connections are available between what cities. Right now, Omaha isn't eligible for a connection through, hopefully with the new terminal, Eppley is working with southwest on their minimum requirements and they you'll get some connections.

This would help to add some thinner southwest routes to Eppley that can't fill a 143 person jet on it's own. For example BWI, SAN, AUS, LAX, daily BNA, TPA might all become possibly for daily service in the future.

Does that make sense?

[Mr.Nuke]

I've asked Nuke before & didn't get an answer. OMA went from 3.6M to 5+M. Pent up demand? PDEW unmet?

Hard to say. I think some of it was probably pent up demand. Remember that for a 7 year period from 2007-2013 the airport actually contracted passenger wise at an average annual rate of -1.3%. The 10 year period from 2007-2016, -0.16%. So you effectively had 10 years of no growth at all.

Then that 5 year period from 2014 to 2018 the airport grew at an average annual rate of 4.1%. So what happened? Again it is hard to say. The U.S. emerged out of the worst recession since the great depression and enjoyed a period of relatively good economic prosperity. The airlines were doing well. Eppley started seeing more and more seats both on existing and new routes and by-and-large based on load factors they were filled.

Again though things have changed since then. Covid hit. Multiple regional airlines went under. There is a massive pilot shortage forcing the remaining regional airlines to park planes. There are also manufacturing shortages leading to delivery delays of new aircraft from both of the major manufacturers as well as replacement parts for things like engine components for existing aircraft should they have issues. All of that is kind of combining to hamper the return to Eppley's full pre-covid routes as well as potential new routes.

What are the underserved markets currently for OMA?

This is solely based on where people were actually flying to last year.

On existing routes, Los Angeles is criminally under-served with 1 once daily regional flight. In Q2 last year it was the 5th most traveled to destination. In Q3 the 4th. Orlando also always appears high in Eppley PDEW but at various times hasn't been served daily or at all. Further down, Nashville also did surprisingly well some quarters suggesting it could potentially justify more than once weekly service Southwest was giving it.

Then Florida. Miami last year was only served on Saturday's by American. In Q1 it was Eppley's #10 destination ahead of places like New York City, Seattle, and Houston. Tampa ditto it was #11 in Q1. Southwest just pulled it from their fall schedule for this coming year too.

Then currently unserved. Staying in Florida to start Fort Myers had a really strong first quarter. It would be nice to see someone like Allegiant or Frontier try it again seasonally. San Diego is still very strong seasonally. Please try it again at some point Southwest. Portland is still strong seasonally as well. Philadelphia is still quasi there too especially if American decides to semi-rehub it if their JetBlue NEA stays struck down by the courts. All four of those obviously had service at some point from Eppley fairly recently in the cases of PHL SAN and PDX. Lastly, Boston.

Keep in mind though this is just the demand side. The yield side may be more explanatory on why some things aren't happening the way it seems they should be based on demand i.e. MCO is a leisure market and the fares may not be there to support greater service despite we know people are flying there daily.

[Bearcat06]

Off Topic

Gosh, I just hope they really showcase the local restaurant scene after the remodel! And most airports have Starbucks now so I guess you have to go there too. Please, no KFC, Burger King, Godfathers etc etc.

Airport food is tricky. I think there is a place for the McDonald's, Burger Kings, et al. of the world. If you go 100% local or vague conceptual restaurants like some airports, if you are traveling through from out of town figuring out where to eat can become a chore. There is also something to be said for familiarity. It is largely the same reason said restaurants tend to be at various interstate exits. I know what I'm getting from McDonald's I know it isn't going to be great, but I know it is going to come out fairly soon; something for a person like me at Eppley is pretty important.

The other hard part of the local restaurant scene in general is getting some of the concepts to translate over. O'Hare has an outpost of the city's famous Mexican cuisine chef Rick Bayless. The O'Hare restaurant (awesome for airport food by the way) only serves variations of the Mexican torta sandwich and chips and salsa/guac. The tortas come out within minutes.

Your favorite Omaha pizza place isn't going to work unless they are either a) selling pre maid slices or b) coming up with some kind of frozen offshoot that cooks in 2 minutes in an oven i.e. an airport Wolfgang Puck restaurant that probably is going to do a disservice to said place's original location. Whatever it is needs to be able to get food out within 5 minutes especially at a place like Eppley.


If they do provide some updated vendors/options I would like some local joints, but like Nuke said, national chains are known by people.

It would be nice to get Runza in there, they have burgers, chicken, salads, etc...which are easy for travelers to order similar to a McDonald's, it's familiar food.

My bet though would be something like Wendy's/ McDonald's, for Mexican your looking at Taco Bell or Chipolte, Chinese would be Panda Express and for pizza while we do have many good local joints unfortunately Godfather's is local and not at the top of my list, but who would push them out? Lighthouse is the only place that I know that does slices on a normal basis...though I'd be down for that. They struggled in Downtown and closed that location though.

OMA does have a Starbucks before TSA, Scooters in the north terminal, I bet Scooters stays because they are local. I'd be find with Kracky's getting the boot.

[ita]

From the Grow Omaha Newsletter:

Starting June 16th, Alaska Airlines will add a second nonstop flight from Omaha to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, making for a total of 10 nonstops to Seattle each week. Meanwhile, Allegiant Airlines will begin new nonstops between Omaha and Austin, Tex. on June 15th.

[Mr.Nuke]

[NovakOmaha]

I was following up on a tip I heard when I found this tidbit. Maybe a call center? A sales office? Anybody know?

Breeze Omaha

[Mr.Nuke]

I was following up on a tip I heard when I found this tidbit. Maybe a call center? A sales office? Anybody know?

Breeze Omaha

I'm skeptical on that manta listing being legitimate given the location. I'm even more skeptical when I google the phone number independently of said listing.

[joleo]

If Breeze came to Omaha, they could fly to San Diego, Tampa, Portland, Charleston, SC, Ft Meyers and Maybe Columbus OH.

Existing airlines at epply would respond to breeze and add service driving breeze away and then eventually the existing airlines might drop the service. Examples are the Omaha-San Deigo Route with Alaska/ Southwest.

San Diego - Southwest would add
Portland - Alaska would add
Tampa - Southwest would add
Ft Meyers - Change the Frontier responds as they used to fly this and have been aggressive at responding to other LLC competition.

Charleston and Columbus would get no response from other airlines.

[thenewguy]

for comparative purposes, here's the current layout vs the planned layout:




if it is complete in 2027, the street car will be up and running, too, along with mutual having been completed, too. what a first impression it'd make for people visiting from out of town...

[joleo]

for comparative purposes, here's the current layout vs the planned layout:




if it is complete in 2027, the street car will be up and running, too, along with mutual having been completed, too. what a first impression it'd make for people visiting from out of town...

If only the streetcar would be extended to Eppley from day 1! Cities with rail to the airport are amazing and it isn't very far so the slower speed of a street car wouldn't be any big deal. Really helps to boost rail ridership too! Feel like Eppley/ City/ Iowa/ Carter Lake should work together to make this happen!

Put 2 stops between eppley and downtown and I bet that vacant land would develop super quick like it has in other cities! 1 stop at Gallup Drive, 1 stop and Owen Parkway (Iowa).

[skinzfan23]

I'm pretty sure this has been discussed numerous times, but the streetcar going to Eppley isn't going to happen. If it ever does, it will be many years. That is another 3-5 mile extension that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. That isn't what a streetcar is designed to do. It is for development within a district and moving people within that development.

[joleo]

It's just less than 3 miles to get to eppley from the proposed end of the line. It would require UPRR crossing which wouldn't be cheap, otherwise, going through lots of green areas is relatively cheap.

Yes, you're right though streetcars promote development, it would really spur development in the under-utilized areas that I referred to above while adding the connection to the airport that would be highly utilized and a big advantage/ selling point for conventions and tourism to the city. Eppley is unique in this country being only 3 miles to downtown, much that could be taken advantage of more than it is today.

[NEDodger]

It's just less than 3 miles to get to eppley from the proposed end of the line. It would require UPRR crossing which wouldn't be cheap, otherwise, going through lots of green areas is relatively cheap.

Yes, you're right though streetcars promote development, it would really spur development in the under-utilized areas that I referred to above while adding the connection to the airport that would be highly utilized and a big advantage/ selling point for conventions and tourism to the city. Eppley is unique in this country being only 3 miles to downtown, much that could be taken advantage of more than it is today.

You’re not getting dense, tall buildings next to an airport. A lot of the route has Carter Lake on the other side. The east side borders a jail and homeless shelters. And no one wants to putt putt putt slowly to an airport.

There is zero reason to have a streetcar line to Eppley.

[NovakOmaha]

How about an EL like Chicago? Sure, hundreds of millions of dollars but for the dozens of passengers who might ride it it would be nice. So far not one ounce of dirt has been turned for any streetcar in Omaha. In my opinion the juice isn't worth the squeeze for an Eppley extension.

[Garrett]

Sen Wayne’s Eppley route proposal would be a better line from a development standpoint. You definitely don’t want development in line with the runways like an Abbott line would entail. But I think there are a lot of other lines to develop before the airport

[Dusty]

I get the appeal of using the streetcar to connect to the airport. But I feel it's the wrong type of train and too many obstacles. There are a ton of residential homes along the 16th route that will resist to sell. If you can't build strong density all the way through, then it's not worth the money. Plus, I don't want to take a slow train to the airport with the fear of missing my flight.

This is why I keep bringing up the concept of the 480 transit center(Harney to Dodge). You can build a light rail station on the interstate level. It's a straight shot along 75 North to the airport. Guess what? There are no buildings to demolish or homeowners refusing to sell along the path. I would make stops at: Lake, Ames, Airport. Building strong mixed use developments around the Lake and Ames stations are essential. Sen Wayne has made a number of times he is frustrated North Omaha is constantly overlooked for redevelopment plans. Something like this would have him hopping with joy.