Holiday travel
Memorial Day at OMA
Eppley Airfield, Omaha, NE. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against OMA’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.
The window, year by year
The window runs the Saturday through the Monday, around Memorial Day (the last Monday of May). In the data: May 25–27, 2024; May 24–26, 2025; May 23–25, 2026. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Memorial Day flights were about as punctual as ordinary days in all three years. The gap ran from 2.9 points below usual in 2024 to 3.2 points above usual in 2025.
1.00% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Memorial Day windows, against 0.89% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. The rate stayed within a quarter point of usual in all three years.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024May 25–27, 2024 | 185 | 74.3% | 77.2% | −2.9about the same | 2.16% | 0.90% |
| 2025May 24–26, 2025 | 198 | 80.5% | 77.3% | +3.2about the same | 0.51% | 0.89% |
| 2026May 23–25, 2026 | 216 | 79.5% | 77.2% | +2.3about the same | 0.46% | 0.89% |
| All years3 windows | 599 | 78.3% | 77.3% | +1.0about the same | 1.00% | 0.89% |
Day by day
No single day has enough flights in one year to compare the years, so the days are ranked on all three years pooled: Memorial Day ran lowest (71.5% on time, 3.4 points below usual) and the Saturday before Memorial Day highest (86.1%, 3.6 points above usual). This cannot say whether the same day was worst or best in each year.
- Better than usual
- Worse than usual
- About the same
- What ordinary days of the same weekday had
- Lowest to highest single year
- Lighter bars: days just outside the window
Bars show the on-time arrival rate and start at 60%, not zero.
| Day | Departures against an ordinary day | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Each year: 2024, 2025, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 70.8% | 74.2% | −3.4about the same | 0.45% | — · — · — |
| Friday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 76.3% | 78.9% | −2.6about the same | 0.90% | — · — · — |
| Saturday before | 5% fewer | 86.1% | 82.5% | +3.6about the same | 0.57% | — · — · — |
| Sunday before | 11% fewer | 78.7% | 75.2% | +3.5about the same | 0.49% | — · — · — |
| Memorial Day | about the same | 71.5% | 74.9% | −3.4about the same | 1.83% | — · — · — |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | 2% more | 77.0% | 76.4% | +0.6about the same | 1.94% | — · — · — |
A dash means fewer than 120 flights stood behind the figure, or behind the ordinary days it would be compared with: too few to print a rate, and nothing is estimated in its place. “Usual” is what ordinary days of the same weekday had at the same place in the weeks around the holiday, weighted by the flights being compared.
Which departure times held up
The busiest days at OMA were Sunday, May 26, 2024 (63 departures), Monday, May 27, 2024 (70 departures), Sunday, May 25, 2025 (67 departures), Monday, May 26, 2025 (71 departures), Sunday, May 24, 2026 (75 departures), and Monday, May 25, 2026 (78 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 84.5%, still 4.3 points below usual for that time of day. Those leaving 3–6 PM had the lowest: 66.4%, about level with usual for that time of day.
The holiday cost flights leaving 5–9 AM the most (4.3 points below usual for that time of day) and those leaving 3–6 PM the least (0.7 points below).
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 84.5% | 88.8% | −4.3about the same | 82.0% | 88.0% | −6.0about the same |
| 9 AM–12 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12–3 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3–6 PM | 66.4% | 67.1% | −0.7about the same | — | — | — |
| 6–9 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 PM–5 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
OMA beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts OMA’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether OMA did better or worse than the network.
| Year | OMA on time | OMA, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024May 25–27, 2024 | 74.3% | −2.9 | 72.7% | −2.3 |
| 2025May 24–26, 2025 | 80.5% | +3.2 | 76.4% | +1.4 |
| 2026May 23–25, 2026 | 79.5% | +2.3 | 75.0% | 0.0 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at OMA, or the network view.