Eppley Airfield (IATA: OMA, ICAO: KOMA, FAA LID: OMA) is an international medium hub airport three miles northeast of downtown Omaha, Nebraska, in Douglas County, Nebraska, United States. It is the largest airport in Nebraska, serving ten times more passengers than all other Nebraska airports combined.
The airport occupies 2,650 acres (1,070 ha) and handles about 120 airline flights per day to and from 28 daily and 3 seasonal non-stop destinations. Eppley served 4.35 million passengers in 2016 (including both enplaned and deplaned passengers).
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History
Eppley Airfield began as an extension of Levi Carter Park near East Omaha in 1925. That year, the City of Omaha acquired 200 acres of cleared land on the east side of Carter Lake. Almost immediately, planes started landing and taking off there. A lawsuit was launched against the City in 1927 when a group wanted to build a hangar there. The lawsuit failed and the land was called both the Omaha Municipal Airport and the American Legion Airport.
The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 42 scheduled airline departures per day, with 23 by United Airlines and 19 by Braniff Airlines. The airport is named for Eugene C. Eppley, the Eppley Hotels magnate of Omaha, from whose estate $1.0 million was used to convert the then Omaha Municipal Airport into a jetport in 1959-60. This was matched by the federal government and improvements were made to handle jets at the airport, and the first jets landed were United Airlines B720s in August 1960.
The terminal building, opened in 1961, was designed by James C. Buckley, Inc. Concourse B opened in 1970, and it was remodeled when Concourse A opened in 1986.
Hubs and operations
Midwest Airlines, then known as Midwest Express, operated a hub at Eppley Airfield from 1995 to 2002 with flights to Milwaukee, Newark, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Diego International Airport, and Washington-Reagan; the airport remained a focus city with nonstops to Milwaukee and Washington-Reagan until the airline merged with Frontier Airlines in 2010. As of April 2017, Omaha has no international passenger flights. The airport handled more than 4.3 million passengers in 2016. Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines are the first-, second-, and third-largest carriers and serve approximately 34 percent, 21 percent, and 19 percent, respectively, of passengers.
Although there are no international passenger flights from Eppley Airfield, there is one international cargo flight, as UPS operates a daily flight to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Popular culture
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.
Eppley Airport Video
Expansion
Current
Parking Garage
In April 2017, the Omaha Airport Authority began construction on an approximately $71 million, six-story parking garage and new suspended-above-ground rental car terminal building. The new garage is to be built north of the existing six-story garage with a large glass rental car facility between the new garage and existing terminal connected to both via covered skywalks. The project will be expected to be completed in fall 2018. The first phase would provide 2,200 parking stalls, with 850 stalls for rental cars and 1,350 public stalls. There are some minor parking changes during construction and significant rental car parking changes. While the existing rental car counters in the terminal will be fully operational, rental car parking (and returns) will be located in the airport's "canopy lot" and require shuttle service for customers to gain access. Shuttle services by rental car agencies will be provided both to and from the temporary lot. Access to shuttles will be located at marked areas of the temporary lot and on the front drive (commercial lanes) of the terminal.
Airport
Construction and upgrades are planned for Eppley Airfield's terminal and tarmac. An expansion to the runway 36/18 will be added in order to have larger aircraft landing, as well as taxiway A being enlarged to handle such aircraft. Next, Concourses A and B will be joined together by a long corridor, and expanded in the northern direction, adding 8 more jetways. This expansion will also add 6-8 more security positions, instead of the current two. After construction, there will be a total of 28 gates, with some able to handle larger aircraft. On either side of the "megaterminal" the ramp will be extended for overnight aircraft parking.
In January 2016, Eppley Airfield completed the expansion of its on-site United States Customs and Border Protection facility (CBP) to provide greater customs and inspection services for international passengers. While Eppley Airfield is classified as a "Customs Landing Rights Airport" for international flights (officially an "international airport") by United States Customs and Border Protection, there is no regularly scheduled international passenger service; however, the airport does handle international charter and private flights.
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.
Terminals
Central Terminal
The Central Terminal contains the ground transportation center and rental car counters.
South Terminal
The South Terminal and Concourse A includes gates A1-A10, baggage claims 1-3, and services Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Frontier Airlines.
North Terminal
The North Terminal and Concourse B includes gates B11-B20, baggage claims 4-6, and services Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Cargo
Statistics
Top destinations
Annual traffic
Ground transportation
MAT Line 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.
Accidents and incidents
- On July 11, 1961, United Airlines Flight 859 veered off the runway and collided with construction equipment at Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado after a flight from Omaha. 17 aboard the aircraft were killed, as was one person on the ground.
- 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.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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