Omaha (OMA) Airport Updates

[Driveway Jordan]

That sucks!

I’ll take the opportunity to rant here a bit on something that is decades old but still baffles me as to how moronic the LNK city government can be. This stupidity spans generations and perhaps across both parties. However, as I understand it, in the 70s there was discussion between OMA and LNK about creating a shared airport halfway between the two cities. Similar to DFW. However, in the end LNK took their toys out of the pram and backed out of the deal claiming that it was the capital city and needed it’s own airport.

Imagine how much more traffic there would have been with a shared airport! I’m convinced both cities would have prospered far more by working together than as separates.

To add insult to injury Lincoln was approached by Gallup for tax breaks to build a new, larger corporate HQ. Lincoln declined and they moved to OMA. I understand that decision was also influenced with OMA having a larger airport to better support corporate travel. Lincoln paid the price twice.

Does anyone else recall these stories or have more specific insights?

An airport in West Omaha or Gretna would have benefited both cities.

 

[Husker15]

An airport in West Omaha or Gretna would have benefited both cities.

It would have benefited Lincoln but I don't think it would benefit Omaha. Eppley being close to downtown is huge for business travelers and most people from Lincoln already fly out of Omaha

 

[Husker15]

That sucks!

I’ll take the opportunity to rant here a bit on something that is decades old but still baffles me as to how moronic the LNK city government can be. This stupidity spans generations and perhaps across both parties. However, as I understand it, in the 70s there was discussion between OMA and LNK about creating a shared airport halfway between the two cities. Similar to DFW. However, in the end LNK took their toys out of the pram and backed out of the deal claiming that it was the capital city and needed it’s own airport.

Imagine how much more traffic there would have been with a shared airport! I’m convinced both cities would have prospered far more by working together than as separates.

Does anyone else recall these stories or have more specific insights?

Spoiler: LJS Story

Almost 50 years ago, Lincoln and Omaha considered a proposal that might have dramatically changed the way both cities and the corridor that connects them look today.
On the table was a proposal to build a big new regional airport roughly halfway between the two cities.
Some of the supporters of the idea even imagined an accompanying "New City" sprouting up halfway between Omaha and Lincoln, which had become more closely and swiftly connected just eight years earlier by completion of the Interstate 80 segment between the two cities.

The proposal for a regional airport was floated in 1969 during Norbert Tiemann's daring and innovative governorship, when virtually everything was on the table.


Including the future.

Tiemann was all-in on the regional airport idea, appointed a Metropolitan Airport Advisory Committee to take a look at the proposal and convened a meeting of all the major players in Omaha in July of that year.
"It appears the consensus is that the question is not whether such a facility should be constructed, but rather when is the proper time," Tiemann wrote in a June 26 letter to the leaders he summoned to a meeting at Eppley Airfield on July 11.

"I feel that we should not postpone the program of a third airport any longer," the governor wrote.

The Federal Aviation Agency had weighed in a month earlier with an informal recommendation that appeared to support a proposed new airport.
"A regional airport between Omaha and Lincoln would be to the advantage of all concerned," an FCC document stated, noting that both the Lincoln Airport and Eppley would continue to handle general aviation, some air cargo and air taxi service.

Momentum appeared to be setting the stage for a decision to move ahead.
But in the end, the committee appointed by the governor, composed of three members of the Lincoln Airport Authority, three members of the Omaha Airport Authority and one member of the State Aeronautics Commission, unanimously rejected the idea.

"It is the carefully developed opinion of each member of this committee, based upon the herein facts, that need for a new regional airport has not been shown to exist for years to come," Tiemann was told.

To move ahead now would "impose great added inconvenience and highly unpopular financial burdens on the local population," the committee stated.


Five decades later, it's easy to imagine that Lincoln might have benefited more from the proposal than Omaha. But that always will be an unknown, along with how the Interstate 80 corridor might have looked today.

Arguing against the new airport were its estimated cost, pegged at $500 million or so, and a recognition that both the existing Omaha and Lincoln airports "enjoy an enviable proximity to the central business districts of their cities."


It's clearly evident that Lincoln and Omaha have become far more collaborative now than they were then -- a separate research report in 1970 had suggested that agreement on a regional airport would "require the Omaha Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben and the Lincoln O Street Gang to lay aside past rivalries" -- and the cities are far more connected now.
Increasing commuter traffic on the interstate flows in both directions between the two cities -- and Omaha's western suburbs like Gretna -- before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. on weekdays.
The two cities' leading business organizations, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, meet halfway down Interstate 80 at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum near Ashland for annual get-togethers with members of Nebraska's congressional delegation.



(And both the O Street Gang and the king and queen of Aksarben, as it identifies itself today, are done and gone.)
Tiemann's official papers and correspondence, which are securely housed by History Nebraska, formerly the Nebraska State Historical Society, tell the story of the efforts to expand air service at the time.
Included are letters Tiemann sent to air carriers -- Delta, Continental, Ozark and North Central -- seeking increased air service for Lincoln.

His letter to invited participants in the July meeting at Eppley suggested that a regional airport would "help serve the distant future air carrier needs of these two and other surrounding communities."

The informal FAA statement pointed to the need for a regional airport developing sometime during the 1980s.

In its statement, the FAA noted that Omaha was growing westward and Lincoln was growing eastward, both in a direction that would gradually shrink the distance to a regional air terminal for people in both cities.

The study committee appointed by Tiemann held its first meeting in the governor's office on Sept. 8, 1969. Nine months later, its answer was no.
A review of the historical material from nearly 50 years ago demonstrates Tiemann was not the only elected officeholder with big dreams at the time.

Sen. Terry Carpenter of Scottsbluff, the legendary and imaginative state legislator of his time, proposed that same August that the state go even bigger while developing "a giant airport" between Omaha and Lincoln.


Carpenter suggested adding in a new state fairgrounds, a large new horse race track and a new "enclosed stadium" for University of Nebraska football, all located midway between the two cities.

 

[Ext. 55]

Lincoln continues to do Lincoln things.

 

[Elquesogrande68]

Spoiler: LJS Story

Almost 50 years ago, Lincoln and Omaha considered a proposal that might have dramatically changed the way both cities and the corridor that connects them look today.
On the table was a proposal to build a big new regional airport roughly halfway between the two cities.
Some of the supporters of the idea even imagined an accompanying "New City" sprouting up halfway between Omaha and Lincoln, which had become more closely and swiftly connected just eight years earlier by completion of the Interstate 80 segment between the two cities.

The proposal for a regional airport was floated in 1969 during Norbert Tiemann's daring and innovative governorship, when virtually everything was on the table.


Including the future.

Tiemann was all-in on the regional airport idea, appointed a Metropolitan Airport Advisory Committee to take a look at the proposal and convened a meeting of all the major players in Omaha in July of that year.
"It appears the consensus is that the question is not whether such a facility should be constructed, but rather when is the proper time," Tiemann wrote in a June 26 letter to the leaders he summoned to a meeting at Eppley Airfield on July 11.

"I feel that we should not postpone the program of a third airport any longer," the governor wrote.

The Federal Aviation Agency had weighed in a month earlier with an informal recommendation that appeared to support a proposed new airport.
"A regional airport between Omaha and Lincoln would be to the advantage of all concerned," an FCC document stated, noting that both the Lincoln Airport and Eppley would continue to handle general aviation, some air cargo and air taxi service.

Momentum appeared to be setting the stage for a decision to move ahead.
But in the end, the committee appointed by the governor, composed of three members of the Lincoln Airport Authority, three members of the Omaha Airport Authority and one member of the State Aeronautics Commission, unanimously rejected the idea.

"It is the carefully developed opinion of each member of this committee, based upon the herein facts, that need for a new regional airport has not been shown to exist for years to come," Tiemann was told.

To move ahead now would "impose great added inconvenience and highly unpopular financial burdens on the local population," the committee stated.


Five decades later, it's easy to imagine that Lincoln might have benefited more from the proposal than Omaha. But that always will be an unknown, along with how the Interstate 80 corridor might have looked today.

Arguing against the new airport were its estimated cost, pegged at $500 million or so, and a recognition that both the existing Omaha and Lincoln airports "enjoy an enviable proximity to the central business districts of their cities."


It's clearly evident that Lincoln and Omaha have become far more collaborative now than they were then -- a separate research report in 1970 had suggested that agreement on a regional airport would "require the Omaha Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben and the Lincoln O Street Gang to lay aside past rivalries" -- and the cities are far more connected now.
Increasing commuter traffic on the interstate flows in both directions between the two cities -- and Omaha's western suburbs like Gretna -- before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. on weekdays.
The two cities' leading business organizations, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, meet halfway down Interstate 80 at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum near Ashland for annual get-togethers with members of Nebraska's congressional delegation.



(And both the O Street Gang and the king and queen of Aksarben, as it identifies itself today, are done and gone.)
Tiemann's official papers and correspondence, which are securely housed by History Nebraska, formerly the Nebraska State Historical Society, tell the story of the efforts to expand air service at the time.
Included are letters Tiemann sent to air carriers -- Delta, Continental, Ozark and North Central -- seeking increased air service for Lincoln.

His letter to invited participants in the July meeting at Eppley suggested that a regional airport would "help serve the distant future air carrier needs of these two and other surrounding communities."

The informal FAA statement pointed to the need for a regional airport developing sometime during the 1980s.

In its statement, the FAA noted that Omaha was growing westward and Lincoln was growing eastward, both in a direction that would gradually shrink the distance to a regional air terminal for people in both cities.

The study committee appointed by Tiemann held its first meeting in the governor's office on Sept. 8, 1969. Nine months later, its answer was no.
A review of the historical material from nearly 50 years ago demonstrates Tiemann was not the only elected officeholder with big dreams at the time.

Sen. Terry Carpenter of Scottsbluff, the legendary and imaginative state legislator of his time, proposed that same August that the state go even bigger while developing "a giant airport" between Omaha and Lincoln.


Carpenter suggested adding in a new state fairgrounds, a large new horse race track and a new "enclosed stadium" for University of Nebraska football, all located midway between the two cities.

cool thank you for sharing! that is the first publication I’ve seen giving any details. when was the article published? I’ve not lived in Lincoln for 35+ years.

 

[Elquesogrande68]

wow

imagine this

"lake ashland" .. a giant recreation and fishing lake

a NEBRASKA airport. not some bullshit near carter lake, Cockeye

be fucking utopia mate

too fucking right, matey. Just the drive being reduced to 30 minutes to a shared airport, likely with a lot more destinations would be monumental.

 

[ThankGODforWVB]

Lincoln continues to do Lincoln things.

My Grandfather was a city engineer in the 50s, and always told we grandchildren just how idiotic the city of Lincoln's government was. Imagine that when I-80 was built, Lincoln was offered a circle just like I-680 in Omaha, and the stooges turned it down ......

 

[Link-]

Spoiler: LJS Story

Almost 50 years ago, Lincoln and Omaha considered a proposal that might have dramatically changed the way both cities and the corridor that connects them look today.
On the table was a proposal to build a big new regional airport roughly halfway between the two cities.
Some of the supporters of the idea even imagined an accompanying "New City" sprouting up halfway between Omaha and Lincoln, which had become more closely and swiftly connected just eight years earlier by completion of the Interstate 80 segment between the two cities.

The proposal for a regional airport was floated in 1969 during Norbert Tiemann's daring and innovative governorship, when virtually everything was on the table.


Including the future.

Tiemann was all-in on the regional airport idea, appointed a Metropolitan Airport Advisory Committee to take a look at the proposal and convened a meeting of all the major players in Omaha in July of that year.
"It appears the consensus is that the question is not whether such a facility should be constructed, but rather when is the proper time," Tiemann wrote in a June 26 letter to the leaders he summoned to a meeting at Eppley Airfield on July 11.

"I feel that we should not postpone the program of a third airport any longer," the governor wrote.

The Federal Aviation Agency had weighed in a month earlier with an informal recommendation that appeared to support a proposed new airport.
"A regional airport between Omaha and Lincoln would be to the advantage of all concerned," an FCC document stated, noting that both the Lincoln Airport and Eppley would continue to handle general aviation, some air cargo and air taxi service.

Momentum appeared to be setting the stage for a decision to move ahead.
But in the end, the committee appointed by the governor, composed of three members of the Lincoln Airport Authority, three members of the Omaha Airport Authority and one member of the State Aeronautics Commission, unanimously rejected the idea.

"It is the carefully developed opinion of each member of this committee, based upon the herein facts, that need for a new regional airport has not been shown to exist for years to come," Tiemann was told.

To move ahead now would "impose great added inconvenience and highly unpopular financial burdens on the local population," the committee stated.


Five decades later, it's easy to imagine that Lincoln might have benefited more from the proposal than Omaha. But that always will be an unknown, along with how the Interstate 80 corridor might have looked today.

Arguing against the new airport were its estimated cost, pegged at $500 million or so, and a recognition that both the existing Omaha and Lincoln airports "enjoy an enviable proximity to the central business districts of their cities."


It's clearly evident that Lincoln and Omaha have become far more collaborative now than they were then -- a separate research report in 1970 had suggested that agreement on a regional airport would "require the Omaha Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben and the Lincoln O Street Gang to lay aside past rivalries" -- and the cities are far more connected now.
Increasing commuter traffic on the interstate flows in both directions between the two cities -- and Omaha's western suburbs like Gretna -- before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. on weekdays.
The two cities' leading business organizations, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, meet halfway down Interstate 80 at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum near Ashland for annual get-togethers with members of Nebraska's congressional delegation.



(And both the O Street Gang and the king and queen of Aksarben, as it identifies itself today, are done and gone.)
Tiemann's official papers and correspondence, which are securely housed by History Nebraska, formerly the Nebraska State Historical Society, tell the story of the efforts to expand air service at the time.
Included are letters Tiemann sent to air carriers -- Delta, Continental, Ozark and North Central -- seeking increased air service for Lincoln.

His letter to invited participants in the July meeting at Eppley suggested that a regional airport would "help serve the distant future air carrier needs of these two and other surrounding communities."

The informal FAA statement pointed to the need for a regional airport developing sometime during the 1980s.

In its statement, the FAA noted that Omaha was growing westward and Lincoln was growing eastward, both in a direction that would gradually shrink the distance to a regional air terminal for people in both cities.

The study committee appointed by Tiemann held its first meeting in the governor's office on Sept. 8, 1969. Nine months later, its answer was no.
A review of the historical material from nearly 50 years ago demonstrates Tiemann was not the only elected officeholder with big dreams at the time.

Sen. Terry Carpenter of Scottsbluff, the legendary and imaginative state legislator of his time, proposed that same August that the state go even bigger while developing "a giant airport" between Omaha and Lincoln.


Carpenter suggested adding in a new state fairgrounds, a large new horse race track and a new "enclosed stadium" for University of Nebraska football, all located midway between the two cities.

Terry is a fucking legend and one of the most awesomely insane politicians in Nebraska history. For those that don’t know, he created his own town right next to Scottsbluff because the town wouldn’t let him sell booze, big oil companies got him evicted because he started a price war during the Great Depression, started a bunch of other businesses and decided to create Terrytown to skirt regulations.