Route profile
OMA→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Omaha to Atlanta, 821 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 84% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,980 flights. How this is calculated
OMA → ATL arrives on time 87.1% of the time; the return trip, ATL → OMA, arrives on time 81.9% of the time, a 5.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
OMA → ATL spends 21.8 minutes on the ground on an 821-mile trip: 12.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at OMA and 8.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 98% of 5,368 comparable routes.
86.9% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 87.0% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 OMA to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
OMA to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 86.4% arrive on time, 17.8 points ahead of the 68.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.7 points.
OMA to ATL struggles most at 5 AM: 89.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 2.6 points behind the 92.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 2.8 points.
OMA to ATL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 89.0% on time to their 76.4%, a 12.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
June is kinder to OMA to ATL than to routes of similar length: 88.3% on time against 71.6%, 16.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 15.6 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on OMA to ATL than on its routes of similar length: 88.1% on time here, 80.5% there, 7.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
OMA to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 86.4% | routes of similar length | 68.6% | +17.8 pts | 375 here, 127,749 there |
| Hour: 5 AM departures | 89.4% | routes of similar length | 92.0% | −2.6 pts | 1,110 here, 74,411 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 89.0% | routes of similar length | 76.4% | +12.6 pts | 873 here, 337,056 there |
| Month: June | 88.3% | routes of similar length | 71.6% | +16.7 pts | 454 here, 188,091 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 88.1% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | +7.6 pts | 5,315 here, 281,923 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 821 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.
Why OMA → ATL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
OMA → ATL cancelled 65 of 5,980 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 92. The reason filed most often was the airline, 60.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 153 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 65 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
39 cancellations, 60.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
24 cancellations, 36.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
2 cancellations, 3.1% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
65 coded cancellations were recorded on OMA → ATL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
22 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 5,980 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from OMA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 22% | High risk |
| 45 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.1% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.6% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 3.1% | 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 1.09% of the time and diverts 0.27% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,899 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 22 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,980 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
OMA → ATL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.4% of the time, against 79.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 10.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 89.4% on time from 1,136 flights
- 6 AM: 92.0% on time from 190 flights
- 7 AM: 91.0% on time from 892 flights
- 8 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 90.3% on time from 583 flights
- 11 AM: 89.7% on time from 496 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 85.9% on time from 194 flights
- 2 PM: 86.4% on time from 262 flights
- 3 PM: 83.4% on time from 650 flights
- 4 PM: 86.4% on time from 379 flights
- 5 PM: 83.3% on time from 168 flights
- 6 PM: 79.5% on time from 889 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why OMA → ATL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for OMA → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 5,392 | 88.1% | 1.15% | -14 min | 4.4% |
| Southwest Airlines | 523 | 79.4% | 0.57% | -4 min | 5.0% |
Delta Air Lines flew 91.2% of the 5,915 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 8.7 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.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 4.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.4%
- Feb: 89.7%
- Mar: 85.1%
- Apr: 87.4%
- May: 85.0%
- Jun: 88.3%
- Jul: 81.7%
- Aug: 87.6%
- Sep: 93.8%
- Oct: 92.9%
- Nov: 87.9%
- Dec: 86.2%
January is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 13.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 83.9% from 179 flights
- August 2023: 83.1% from 179 flights
- September 2023: 94.7% from 188 flights
- October 2023: 94.8% from 194 flights
- November 2023: 91.0% from 189 flights
- December 2023: 91.1% from 203 flights
- January 2024: 74.5% from 167 flights
- February 2024: 90.7% from 162 flights
- March 2024: 86.7% from 181 flights
- April 2024: 91.5% from 176 flights
- May 2024: 81.7% from 181 flights
- June 2024: 86.2% from 167 flights
- July 2024: 79.7% from 167 flights
- August 2024: 94.5% from 165 flights
- September 2024: 91.7% from 157 flights
- October 2024: 91.4% from 163 flights
- November 2024: 88.5% from 157 flights
- December 2024: 82.6% from 167 flights
- January 2025: 82.6% from 143 flights
- February 2025: 82.3% from 141 flights
- March 2025: 86.3% from 174 flights
- April 2025: 86.8% from 152 flights
- May 2025: 87.2% from 149 flights
- June 2025: 89.2% from 144 flights
- July 2025: 80.0% from 147 flights
- August 2025: 85.3% from 144 flights
- September 2025: 94.9% from 137 flights
- October 2025: 92.1% from 152 flights
- November 2025: 83.1% from 146 flights
- December 2025: 83.6% from 159 flights
- January 2026: 85.2% from 147 flights
- February 2026: 95.8% from 142 flights
- March 2026: 82.1% from 160 flights
- April 2026: 83.1% from 153 flights
- May 2026: 86.9% from 149 flights
- June 2026: 89.9% from 148 flights
- July 2026: 83.0% from 151 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 86.9% against 87.0% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,980 OMA → ATL 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