Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Eppley Airfield is Omaha's principal commercial airport, sitting on the west bank of the Missouri River just northeast of downtown in eastern Nebraska. It is the busiest airport in the state, operated by the Omaha Airport Authority, and offers a full Class C service with an ILS-equipped runway system suited to both airline and general aviation traffic. For a simulator pilot it presents a classic medium-hub environment: parallel long runways, an intersecting crosswind strip, and layered airspace typical of a US Class C field.
Eppley Airfield (KOMA/OMA) is Omaha's main airport, owned and operated by the Omaha Airport Authority. It handles the bulk of scheduled airline traffic for eastern Nebraska and western Iowa alongside general aviation movements, and its runway layout of two long parallel strips plus a shorter intersecting one makes it a useful and varied destination for simulator pilots practising airline-style approaches or general aviation circuits in a busy Class C environment.
The airfield lies about three miles northeast of downtown Omaha, Nebraska, on the west bank of the Missouri River in Douglas County. Because of an old river oxbow, the airport itself is surrounded on all sides by land belonging to Carter Lake, Iowa, even though it sits administratively in Nebraska. Eppley operates within Class C airspace, with Omaha Approach/Departure providing the surrounding terminal control service.
Eppley Airfield has three physical runways. The main parallel pair, 14R/32L, is 9,486 feet long with a hard surface, lit, and served by ILS. The second parallel runway, 14L/32R, is 8,488 feet long, also hard-surfaced, lit, and ILS-equipped. The intersecting runway, 18/36, is a hard-surfaced, lit runway with ILS, measuring 7,998 feet on the 18 threshold and 8,143 feet on the 36 threshold.
Radio services at Eppley include Omaha Approach/Departure on 135.875 MHz, ATIS on 120.4 MHz, Clearance Delivery on 119.9 MHz, Ground on 121.9 MHz, and Omaha Tower on 132.1 MHz. UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz. Remote communications outlets are also listed for Fort Dodge Radio on 116.3 MHz and Columbus Radio on 122.35 MHz. All three runways are served by ILS, supporting instrument approaches to the field.
The airfield's position on the west bank of the Missouri River, bounded by Carter Lake to the west and the river itself to the north, east, and south, makes the surrounding water features useful visual references when approaching from any direction. Downtown Omaha lies a short distance to the southwest, providing an additional landmark for orientation.
Eppley Airfield traces its origins to 1925, when the City of Omaha acquired 200 acres of cleared land on the east side of Carter Lake as an extension of Levi Carter Park; aircraft began using the site almost immediately. Known initially as Omaha Municipal Airport (and informally as American Legion Airport), it survived a 1927 lawsuit over hangar construction. In 1957 the airport supported 42 scheduled airline departures a day, split mainly between United Airlines and Braniff International Airways. A $1 million grant from the estate of Eugene C. Eppley, founder of the Eppley Hotel chain, matched by federal funding, paid to prepare the airport for jet operations, and it was renamed Eppley Airfield in his honour in 1960. The first jets, United Boeing 720s, landed in August 1960. The terminal building opened in 1961, with Concourse B following in 1970 and Concourse A in 1986. The Omaha Airport Authority, created in 1959, has held sole jurisdiction over the field since. Midwest Express Airlines (later Midwest Airlines) operated a hub at Eppley from 1995 to 2002, and the airport briefly saw international service with Air Canada Express flights to Toronto from May 2018 to October 2019.
Eppley Airfield remains Nebraska's busiest airport, served today primarily by Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, alongside other carriers, with a 2024 record of over 5.2 million passengers. It has an on-site U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility handling international, charter, and private flight arrivals. The terminal complex is currently split into North and South sections during a modernisation programme expected to unify into a new Central Pavilion by 2027, though this construction relates to passenger facilities rather than the airfield's flying operations.