Lincoln Airport (LNK) Struggling To Attract Passengers

HUSKER 37 said:
I looked into flying Allegiant to GI before but had trouble finding car rentals in the area...Has that ever been addressed?

My Son and I love to road trip (to a certain extent) so we usually fly to Denver (from Phoenix) which isn't much farther to my hometown, ..2/3rds of the ~1300 miles for half the price of PHX to OMA, then finally end up in Lincoln to visit friends and my sister...If we time it right, we can even squeeze in a few miles of tornado chasing between Denver and Holdrege.
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I know there are rental cars in the area but I’m told they aren’t as convenient as a bigger airport. 

 
Sadly, Delta is exiting the LNK market altogether as of Jan 9 2022

That leaves only United out of the main carriers flying to/from LNK. I wonder if they can get a deal with American Airlines for a flight or two per day? American already flies into Omaha and Grand Island today.

LNK should also target the budget carriers like Frontier, Allegiant, Avelo, etc if possible. Southwest to/from Dallas would be a nice add.

In an ideal world/fully maxed out, you’d have a daily flight network from LNK consisting of something like:

AM/Mid day/PM flight to Chicago (all with return flights in same window)- United

AM/PM flight to Dallas (both with return flights in same window)- Southwest OR American

AM/PM flight to Denver (both with return flights in same window)- United

AM flight to somewhere on the east coast (Delta used to have a 6am to ATL- maybe American can replace with a 6am to CLT? United adds one to their DC hub?) with PM return flight to LNK- American OR United

That’s 8 daily routes running out of LNK. For a city of Lincoln’s size with the proximity to OMA/GRI, that’s a good amount of flights.

And then additionally, maybe a one or two per week network with budget carriers running to the following cities: 

Las Vegas (similar to GRI flight)

Somewhere in Florida (TPA, MIA, FLL all good options)

NYC (United)

There’s probably opportunity to market the airport well by offering a variety of flights that OMA does NOT currently service. Once a day to Kansas City or St Louis? Ski towns like Aspen for seasonal routes? Regardless of what happens, they’re going to have to get creative with the massive upgrades underway.

 
Honestly, I don't know why interests haven't gotten together, bought a huge swath of land around Ashland, and set up a new Airport between Lincoln and Omaha. 

You'd attract folks from both cities, and both Lincoln and Omaha are starting to grow closer to each other anyway. Add in proposed light rail between the cities, and you've got an Airport city that can spur development and expansion in between Lincoln and Omaha (not unlike what has happened in other states/cities with smaller, start-up airports) and help grow the cities and their respective economic bases over time. 

IIRC, the City of Lincoln owns the airport--sell Lincoln Airport to an aviation interest or the land to a developer and zone it for mixed use development (residential/retail/commercial) right off of I-80.

 
VectorVictor said:
IIRC, the City of Lincoln owns the airport--sell Lincoln Airport to an aviation interest or the land to a developer and zone it for mixed use development (residential/retail/commercial) right off of I-80.
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It's also the Air National Guard's base for the 155th Air Refueling Wing, as well as the home for Duncan Aviation and Silverhawk, among others. 

There's also a race track on the grounds. And an area UNL uses for testing crash barriers. It's a pretty important multi-use facility. 

Eppley Airfield is a pretty major hub for a growing city. They're sinking a lot of money into some nearly-completed upgrades right now. I'm not sure there's any motivation to abandon that airfield for a hub between the cities. 

 
knapplc said:
It's also the Air National Guard's base for the 155th Air Refueling Wing, as well as the home for Duncan Aviation and Silverhawk, among others. 

There's also a race track on the grounds. And an area UNL uses for testing crash barriers. It's a pretty important multi-use facility. 

Eppley Airfield is a pretty major hub for a growing city. They're sinking a lot of money into some nearly-completed upgrades right now. I'm not sure there's any motivation to abandon that airfield for a hub between the cities. 
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True. But we can always sell the airport to Duncan, Silverhawk, or someone else in Aviation. It's just that it's pretty obvious unless we want to put an expensive coat of lipstick on this pig, it's not going to be attractive for anyone to fly out of there. And if we're going to spend all that money, why not build something new, that has more controls, and truly can spur development?

 
knapplc said:
Eppley Airfield is a pretty major hub for a growing city. They're sinking a lot of money into some nearly-completed upgrades right now. I'm not sure there's any motivation to abandon that airfield for a hub between the cities. 
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What upgrades are they working on? I'm flying in Friday, I'll keep my eyes open haha.

 
As someone who flies quite a bit and from central Nebraska.  I used to fly out of Omaha all the time.  I would check Lincoln and only a few times over the years have I used it because it was actually cheaper.  Omaha was always enough cheaper to make the extra drive worth it.

Now, I have Kearney and Grand Island to fly out of and absolutely love it.  MUCH less driving.  Parking right outside the door.  I literally can remote start my car from inside the door while I wait for my luggage.  They have upgraded the terminals to be pretty nice.  I get convenient flights to Denver, O'hare and Dallas.

That said, I really have no need for an airport in Lincoln.  Actually, the idea of building one between Omaha and Lincoln makes sense.....other than what someone said about all the upgrades that have already been done in Omaha.

 
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Lincoln is in the process of updating their airport as well. Lot’s of new stuff coming.

They need another carrier to provide service in/out. Apparently they’re hoping to announce a new contract in the next 3-6 months for new service. We’ll see what happens.

Looks like the renderings for the new redesign have two spaces for Boeing 737’s. That could facilitate flights to from anywhere from Denver to Charlotte to New York to Seattle to Miami. That in and of itself is a big time upgrade.

Edit- maybe a flight to Houston? That’s a United hub. What about other Texas cities like Dallas and Austin? OKC? There has to be some demand data somewhere for where people want to fly to out of GRI/LNK/OMA that we can reference for this type of discussion.

 
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VectorVictor said:
Honestly, I don't know why interests haven't gotten together, bought a huge swath of land around Ashland, and set up a new Airport between Lincoln and Omaha. 

You'd attract folks from both cities, and both Lincoln and Omaha are starting to grow closer to each other anyway. Add in proposed light rail between the cities, and you've got an Airport city that can spur development and expansion in between Lincoln and Omaha (not unlike what has happened in other states/cities with smaller, start-up airports) and help grow the cities and their respective economic bases over time. 

IIRC, the City of Lincoln owns the airport--sell Lincoln Airport to an aviation interest or the land to a developer and zone it for mixed use development (residential/retail/commercial) right off of I-80.
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Remember when they wanted to make a party lake in Ashland...That would have rocked

 
BigRedBuster said:
As someone who flies quite a bit and from central Nebraska.  I used to fly out of Omaha all the time.  I would check Lincoln and only a few times over the years have I used it because it was actually cheaper.  Omaha was always enough cheaper to make the extra drive worth it.

Now, I have Kearney and Grand Island to fly out of and absolutely love it.  MUCH less driving.  Parking right outside the door.  I literally can remote start my car from inside the door while I wait for my luggage.  They have upgraded the terminals to be pretty nice.  I get convenient flights to Denver, O'hare and Dallas.

That said, I really have no need for an airport in Lincoln.  Actually, the idea of building one between Omaha and Lincoln makes sense.....other than what someone said about all the upgrades that have already been done in Omaha.
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Wait...you can fly out of GI and Kearney?  For real>

 
seaofred92 said:
Lincoln is in the process of updating their airport as well. Lot’s of new stuff coming.

They need another carrier to provide service in/out. Apparently they’re hoping to announce a new contract in the next 3-6 months for new service. We’ll see what happens.

Looks like the renderings for the new redesign have two spaces for Boeing 737’s. That could facilitate flights to from anywhere from Denver to Charlotte to New York to Seattle to Miami. That in and of itself is a big time upgrade.

Edit- maybe a flight to Houston? That’s a United hub. What about other Texas cities like Dallas and Austin? OKC? There has to be some demand data somewhere for where people want to fly to out of GRI/LNK/OMA that we can reference for this type of discussion.
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Right, but reading those updates, it doesn't address the blight and lack of development going on outside of the Airport. Having a mid-Lincoln/Omaha airport own all of that land would help help address and prevent future blight. 

And yes, Grand Island/Kearney have proven that people don't always want to go to Omaha to fly out of the state, and Lincoln's airport has been rubbish for some time. While they've cut a few flights back from the GI/Kearney airport, they've expanded significantly over the past decade or so. I've even thought about flying in through there a few times--the cost unfortunately drives me to Omaha. 

 
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