OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha airport adds another feather to its cap: nonstop flights to Miami.
American Airlines in July will begin daily, direct service to Miami International Airport from Eppley Airfield.
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The flight brings the number of nonstop destinations travelers can reach from Omaha to 27.
"This announcement marks the second new destination by American from Omaha in two years and is a testament to passenger demand fueled by a strong local economy," said Steve McCoy, the manager of airline affairs at Eppley.
American last June began daily nonstop service to Los Angeles International Airport. The airline's other nonstop destinations are Charlotte, Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix.
The flight to Miami will offer Omaha travelers a gateway to American’s extensive Latin American and Caribbean routes, McCoy said, many of which take off from Miami. American will fly the route using Embraer E-175 aircraft, which seat 76 passengers in two classes of service.
Other Florida nonstop destinations from Eppley are Orlando's two primary airports and Tampa's.
The additional flight at Eppley comes on the heels of a good year for the airport: In 2016, it was No. 9 when it comes to added flight capacity -- measured in the number of available seats to purchase -- when compared to other medium- and large-sized U.S. airports.
Airlines added about 446,000 seats in Omaha last year, or a 9 percent increase in capacity when compared with 2015. On average, medium- and large-hub airports in the U.S. together grew in capacity by 4.5 percent versus 2015.
(Eppley is deemed by the Federal Aviation Administration a "medium-hub" airport -- in the same classification as the airports in Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis and Milwaukee. It was the 60th-largest out of about 510 commercial airports in the U.S., based on 2014 passenger count figures, according to the FAA.)
Daily nonstop routes are considered an important addition to airports -- leisure travelers can reach their destinations without a stopover to transfer, and business travelers can reach markets for meetings and return home all in the same day.
Service to Miami begins July 5. A daily flight will depart Omaha at 6:25 a.m. and arrive at 10:35 a.m. local time in Miami. Flights will depart Miami for Omaha at 8:28 p.m. and arrive at 10:59 p.m.
Travelers can book flights beginning March 19.