Carrier performance at one airport
WN→OMA
Southwest Airlines at Eppley Airfield
- Departures
- 8,001
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 12
- Rank here
- #7 of 9
Southwest Airlines at Omaha lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 8,001 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,734 at 88.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs 2 points behind the 80.9% 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
78.8%
7,912 completed departures
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.72%
At OMA, this carrier only
Rank here
#7
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at OMA
These figures cover 8,001 flights between September 2025 and August 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 88.2% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 75.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 641 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,734 | 88.2% | 90 min | 1.67% | A |
| Alaska Airlines | 505 | 87.8% | 72 min | 0.59% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 5,569 | 83.2% | 85 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 2,901 | 80.7% | 114 min | 2.07% | B |
| Envoy Air | 1,333 | 80.3% | 78 min | 2.78% | B |
| United Airlines | 3,482 | 79.1% | 84 min | 1.15% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 8,001 | 78.8% | 56 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 596 | 78.0% | 77 min | 2.35% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 641 | 75.4% | 93 min | 0.62% | B+ |
The spread between Delta and Allegiant is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
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 | 1,384 | 71.8% | 62 min | 0.51% | C+ |
| OMA to MDW · Chicago | 1,317 | 81.1% | 49 min | 1.29% | B |
| OMA to PHX · Phoenix | 1,219 | 79.4% | 54 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| OMA to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,034 | 81.8% | 68 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| OMA to STL · St. Louis | 812 | 88.2% | 55 min | 0.49% | A+ |
| OMA to DAL · Dallas | 433 | 79.7% | 61 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| OMA to BNA · Nashville | 410 | 75.2% | 48 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| OMA to HOU · Houston | 373 | 79.8% | 45 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| OMA to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 357 | 80.8% | 51 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| OMA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 341 | 75.9% | 55 min | 1.17% | B |
| OMA to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 167 | 74.5% | 58 min | 2.40% | C |
| OMA to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 96 | 51.0% | 47 min | 0.00% | F+ |
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 29 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,953 flights92.3%
- 8am–11am745 flights85.9%
- 11am–2pm1,775 flights81.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,801 flights70.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,323 flights67.8%
- 8pm–5am404 flights63.2%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 63.2% on time, against 92.3% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,953 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 65.4% on time, 20 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. June was the busiest month here, with 730 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 53%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%National Airspace System
- 20%Carrier
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
53% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 94,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 41 to one. The split is drawn from 93,588 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.72%, below the national 1.89% 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.
6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 8,001 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 85.1% on time and June 65.4%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 7,912 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at OMA
How often is Southwest Airlines at OMA delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.2% of the 8,001 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% 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 88.2% on time across 1,734 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 75.4%, a gap of 13 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 92.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 63.2%, 29 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 65.4% on time, compared with 85.1% in February. Across the year that is 20 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.