Omaha, NE · departure reliability
OMA
Eppley Airfield
- Departures
- 25,386
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 9
- US rank
- #57 by volume
Omaha
Eppley Airfield lands a B, 3 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 a little over an hour on average. That rests on 25,386 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,734 at 88.2% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the nine carriers covered here at 88.2% on time across 1,734 flights.
Key figures
On time
80.7%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.26%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
88.2% on time here
These figures cover 25,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of OMA
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 8,001 | 78.8% | 56 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 5,569 | 83.2% | 85 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 3,482 | 79.1% | 84 min | 1.15% | B |
| American Airlines | 2,901 | 80.7% | 114 min | 2.07% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,734 | 88.2% | 90 min | 1.67% | A |
| Envoy Air | 1,333 | 80.3% | 78 min | 2.78% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 641 | 75.4% | 93 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 596 | 78.0% | 77 min | 2.35% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 505 | 87.8% | 72 min | 0.59% | A+ |
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
Busiest routes out of OMA
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 20 busiest departures from OMA, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 80.7%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OMA to DEN · Denver | 3,325 | 75.8% | 72 min | 0.51% | B+ |
| OMA to ORD · Chicago | 3,108 | 74.2% | 88 min | 3.02% | C− |
| OMA to PHX · Phoenix | 2,015 | 82.1% | 70 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| OMA to ATL · Atlanta | 1,786 | 87.3% | 94 min | 1.62% | A |
| OMA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,557 | 77.3% | 118 min | 2.76% | B |
| OMA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,500 | 82.4% | 97 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| OMA to MDW · Chicago | 1,317 | 81.1% | 49 min | 1.29% | B |
| OMA to DTW · Detroit | 1,148 | 81.2% | 89 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| OMA to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,132 | 82.0% | 72 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| OMA to CLT · Charlotte | 1,003 | 84.4% | 102 min | 1.50% | B |
| OMA to STL · St. Louis | 812 | 88.2% | 55 min | 0.49% | A+ |
| OMA to IAH · Houston | 809 | 87.3% | 72 min | 0.49% | A+ |
| OMA to SLC · Salt Lake City | 781 | 91.1% | 53 min | 0.13% | A+ |
| OMA to DCA · Washington | 645 | 78.7% | 61 min | 1.55% | B |
| OMA to LAX · Los Angeles | 615 | 87.4% | 63 min | 0.49% | A+ |
| OMA to SEA · Seattle | 505 | 87.8% | 72 min | 0.59% | 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 · Orlando | 372 | 81.3% | 51 min | 0.81% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave OMA
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am6,630 flights89.9%
- 8am–11am3,817 flights84.0%
- 11am–2pm4,689 flights80.8%
- 2pm–5pm4,665 flights77.3%
- 5pm–8pm4,925 flights70.8%
- 8pm–5am660 flights64.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.7% on time, against 89.9% 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 6,630 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter OMA departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Omaha (OMA), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.9% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 64.7%, a wide gap of 25.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.9%
- 8–11am84.0%
- 11am–2pm80.8%
- 2–5pm77.3%
- 5–8pm70.8%
- 8pm–5am64.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When OMA runs late
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 25,386 flights. The strip shows how much of OMA's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
June is the worst month at 75.1% on time, 12 points below February, the best at 86.9%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 2,401 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 78.8%, a spread of 5 points.
OMA month by month
Delay causes
Why OMA gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 378,000 reported delay minutes.
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 378,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 377,947 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 132,000 of the 378,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.26% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.30%.
7.3% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
25,386 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Flying out of OMA
Put together: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 64.7% on time against 89.9% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 25 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 24,991 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
OMA delay questions
How often is Omaha (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 19.3% of the 25,386 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Omaha (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 Omaha (OMA)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.7%, 25 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 Omaha (OMA)?
June is the weakest month at 75.1% on time, compared with 86.9% in February. Across the year that is 12 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
- OMA to DEN — Denver75.8%
- OMA to ORD — Chicago74.2%
- OMA to PHX — Phoenix82.1%
- OMA to ATL — Atlanta87.3%
- OMA to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth77.3%
- OMA to MSP — Minneapolis82.4%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record78.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record83.2%
- United Airlines on-time record79.1%
- American Airlines on-time record80.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- US airports with the biggest gap between their best and worst month
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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.