Route profile
DCA→OMA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Omaha, 1,012 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 47% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,989 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DCA → OMA arrives on time 78.4% of the time; the return trip, OMA → DCA, arrives on time 83.9% of the time, a 5.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DCA → OMA spends 24.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,012-mile trip: 19.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DCA and 5.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at OMA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability on this route has fallen unusually sharply over the past year, a bigger swing than 96% of 5,368 comparable routes.
70.9% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 83.7% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), a change of 12.8 points.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DCA to OMA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DCA to OMA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 AM: 89.6% arrive on time, 3.6 points ahead of the 86.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
DCA to OMA holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 80.7% on time to their 73.5%, a 7.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
Republic Airways does better on DCA to OMA than on its routes of similar length: 89.6% on time here, 82.1% there, 7.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DCA to OMA arrive on time 68.6% of the time, 7 points below the 75.6% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 8.8 points.
DCA to OMA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 89.6% | routes of similar length | 86.0% | +3.6 pts | 912 here, 198,125 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 80.7% | routes of similar length | 73.5% | +7.2 pts | 311 here, 436,500 there |
| Airline: Republic Airways | 89.6% | routes of similar length | 82.1% | +7.5 pts | 912 here, 56,558 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 68.6% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | −7.0 pts | 1,043 here, 694,233 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 1,012 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
43 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 1,989 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at OMA after arriving from DCA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.51% of the time and diverts 0.20% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,955 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 43 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,989 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why DCA → OMA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DCA → OMA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DCA → OMA, at 45.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,061 | 68.6% | 1.41% | 2 min | 11.2% |
| Republic Airways | 928 | 89.6% | 1.62% | -15 min | 3.3% |
Southwest Airlines flew 53.3% of the 1,989 flights listed.
Republic Airways arrived on time 21.0 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| YX5608 Republic Airways | 8:00 AM | 650 | 88.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Sunday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 5.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.9%
- Feb: 82.7%
- Mar: 80.5%
- Apr: 83.1%
- May: 75.6%
- Jun: 68.9%
- Jul: 65.6%
- Aug: 80.4%
- Sep: 85.5%
- Oct: 82.1%
- Nov: 86.5%
- Dec: 74.0%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 20.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 70.9% against 83.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 12.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,989 DCA → OMA flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed