Route profile
OMA→SEA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Omaha to Seattle, 1,368 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Weather conditions are strongly associated with delays and cancellations.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 93% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,478 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
OMA → SEA arrives on time 85.1% of the time; the return trip, SEA → OMA, arrives on time 80.6% of the time, a 4.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
OMA → SEA spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,368-mile trip: 15.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at OMA and 10.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at SEA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where OMA to SEA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
OMA to SEA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 87.1% arrive on time, 14 points ahead of the 73.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.5 points.
OMA to SEA holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 89.2% on time to their 78.4%, a 10.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
July is kinder to OMA to SEA than to routes of similar length: 87.6% on time against 69.7%, 17.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 17.9 points.
Alaska Airlines does better on OMA to SEA than on its routes of similar length: 85.1% on time here, 79.7% there, 5.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
OMA to SEA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 87.1% | routes of similar length | 73.1% | +14.0 pts | 170 here, 99,063 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 89.2% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | +10.8 pts | 185 here, 226,431 there |
| Month: July | 87.6% | routes of similar length | 69.7% | +17.9 pts | 225 here, 194,575 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 85.1% | routes of similar length | 79.7% | +5.4 pts | 1,465 here, 63,199 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 1,368 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
24 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 1,478 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SEA after arriving from OMA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.3% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.0% | 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 0.68% 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 1,465 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 24 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,478 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
OMA → SEA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.2% of the time, against 79.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 11.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 94.2% on time from 139 flights
- 7 AM: 89.5% on time from 241 flights
- 8 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 86.3% on time from 282 flights
- 2 PM: 87.1% on time from 172 flights
- 3 PM: 79.7% on time from 577 flights
- 4 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why OMA → SEA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 OMA → SEA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on OMA → SEA, at 46.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.2% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 79.8%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 1,478 | 85.1% | 0.68% | -8 min | 3.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 6.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 86.8% against 85.5% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,478 OMA → SEA 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