4 new gates to open at Omaha's Eppley Airfield next week
A significant milestone in the $950 million renovation and expansion of Omaha’s Eppley Airfield will occur next week with the opening of four new gates.
Starting Wednesday, the new gates will be in the airport’s south terminal. Omaha Airport Authority officials said Delta Air Lines will be the first users of the gates. Each of the four new gates comes with 2,600-square-foot area where waiting passengers can sit and line up — more than 1,000 square feet larger than the existing gates.
The soon-to-be-opening gates are seen at Eppley Airfield in Omaha on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.
Each new gate has a jet bridge that can accommodate a plane of any size, Airport Authority CEO Dave Roth said.
“They can go down to the smallest regional jet all the way up to a (jet) as large as you can get,” Roth said.
Joining the new gates is a sloped concourse that will be Eppley’s widest to date. The concourse connects the seating areas to large bathrooms, a mother’s room, Eppley’s first indoor pet relief area and, eventually, a new concession area.
The expanded terminal area also stands in contrast to the existing terminal, which was last modernized in 1986. The new terminal trades in the existing terminal’s low ceilings and reliance on artificial lights for a ceiling high enough to accommodate floor-to-ceiling windows that let in lots of sunlight. The large windows also allow waiting passengers to overlook the runways and the Loess Hills in Iowa.
“When you walk in here, you can feel just a completely different atmosphere than the current facility. The environment is very open,” Roth said.
Although the new gates will be used only by Delta, passengers with tickets for American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant Air and Alaska Airlines will have access to the new concourse and seating areas.
Construction workers put the finishing touches on the soon-to-be-opening gates at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.
One of the new bathrooms consists of a split-section for women. Each side of the women’s restroom is lined with private stalls — including doors that reach the floor — and sink. There’s also a similarly sized bathroom for men.
The split-section nature of the bathrooms allows for cleaning crews to close off one side but keep the other side open for the respective genders. When both sides are open, the chances of a bathroom line forming are unlikely — even after passengers deplane.
“We probably spent more design time on the restrooms than anything,” Roth said.
The new restrooms are a preview of what awaits passengers after the entire terminal renovation and expansion project is completed in 2028.
“We’re tripling the number of restroom fixtures throughout the facility for both genders,” Airport Authority Chief Strategy and Technology Officer Steve McCoy said.
The Mill, a coffee shop and bar, will open near the end of November in the expanded south concourse. The Mill will be the first of many new Omaha-flavored restaurants to open in the terminal.
A look inside a new restroom at Eppley Airfield in Omaha on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.
Most of the other new restaurants will open in the central pavilion that’s currently under construction. On track to open early next year, the 33-foot-high central pavilion — which is wide enough that it could fit Memorial Stadium’s Tom Osborne Field — will consolidate Eppley’s awkward two-location security system into one location.
The single location can accommodate nine lines of people from the time it opens and 10 lines if there’s a need to expand. The pavilion will also have new airline ticket counters on the second floor. A third skybridge is being built to connect the south garage’s third floor to the central pavilion — “literally 100 steps from the checkpoint,” Roth said
Joining the new central pavilion when it opens will be the Escape Lounge — Eppley’s first airport lounge. The membership-only lounge operated by CAVU will not be affiliated with any airline but will offer food and drinks, a full-service bar, Wi-Fi, restrooms, charging ports, newspapers and TVs.
A new baggage claim system featuring six carousels and more than a mile of conveyor belts — far more than the current system — will also be built in the central pavilion. Longer conveyor belts allow for baggage handlers to place more bags on them without adding to passengers’ waiting times.
The central pavilion’s expected opening will coincide with Eppley Airfield’s 100th anniversary.
Other construction projects in the works include a planned demolishing of the north terminal and rebuilding it to include a federal inspection station and management facility. That federal addition will give Eppley the ability to offer international flights. Two gates and two baggage claim carousels will be capable of accommodating international flights.
David Roth, CEO of the Omaha Airport Authority, shows off a new mother's room at Eppley Airfield.
Passengers are asked to continue to be flexible with the construction until the renovation and expansion project is completed in two years. Roth and McCoy estimated the entire project is about two-thirds completed.
“Throughout the next two years, we’re going to have a lot of passenger movement changes just to accommodate the construction,” Roth said.
In the meantime, airport officials are celebrating the victories as they come.
“We’re excited to hit this milestone next week,” McCoy said. “We’ve still got a ways to go. We appreciate the patience of the traveling public.”
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