Carrier performance at one airport
WN→OMA
Southwest Airlines at Eppley Airfield
- Departures
- 7,921
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 12
- Rank here
- #4 of 9
Southwest Airlines at Omaha lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 7,921 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,730 at 87.5% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs about a point behind the 81.0% weighted average across all carriers at OMA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
80.1%
7,844 completed departures
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.76%
At OMA, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at OMA
These figures cover 7,921 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 5 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at OMA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.5% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 77.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 649 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,730 | 87.5% | 101 min | 1.79% | A |
| Alaska Airlines | 511 | 83.6% | 58 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 5,192 | 82.9% | 87 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 7,921 | 80.1% | 56 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 3,011 | 80.0% | 109 min | 2.26% | B |
| Envoy Air | 1,383 | 79.5% | 72 min | 2.10% | B |
| Republic Airways | 667 | 79.2% | 84 min | 3.15% | B− |
| United Airlines | 3,366 | 78.9% | 83 min | 1.10% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 649 | 77.4% | 91 min | 0.62% | B+ |
Republic Airways cancels 3.1% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from OMA
Southwest Airlines operates 12 routes out of OMA with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OMA to DEN · Denver | 1,415 | 71.9% | 61 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| OMA to MDW · Chicago | 1,384 | 80.6% | 52 min | 1.37% | B |
| OMA to PHX · Phoenix | 1,215 | 81.2% | 54 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| OMA to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,027 | 84.9% | 58 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| OMA to STL · St. Louis | 825 | 89.3% | 66 min | 0.48% | A+ |
| OMA to DAL · Dallas | 428 | 80.7% | 60 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| OMA to HOU · Houston | 387 | 79.5% | 48 min | 0.52% | B+ |
| OMA to BNA · Nashville | 385 | 77.7% | 52 min | 0.52% | B+ |
| OMA to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 355 | 77.3% | 43 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| OMA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 342 | 79.1% | 54 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| OMA to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 75 | 77.5% | 69 min | 4.00% | B− |
| OMA to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 32 | 75.0% | 40 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 24 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,022 flights91.2%
- 8am–11am640 flights86.3%
- 11am–2pm1,655 flights82.0%
- 2pm–5pm1,778 flights74.4%
- 5pm–8pm1,346 flights70.4%
- 8pm–5am480 flights67.1%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.2% of the time, against 67.1% for the overnight window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 74.7% on time, 10 points below February, the best at 85.1%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%National Airspace System
- 19%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 87,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 32 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit.
Cancellations are rare at 0.76%, below the national 1.80% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
5.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 7,921 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 67.1% on time against 91.2% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 24 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at OMA
How often is Southwest Airlines at OMA delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.9% of the 7,921 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at OMA?
Delta Air Lines leads at 87.5% on time across 1,730 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 77.4%, a gap of 10 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Southwest Airlines at OMA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 67.1%, 24 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are June delays on Southwest Airlines at OMA?
June is the weakest month at 74.7% on time, compared with 85.1% in February. Across the year that is 10 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.