Route profile
SEA→OMA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Seattle to Omaha, 1,368 miles.
Right now
Weather conditions are strongly associated with delays and cancellations.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 88% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,479 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SEA → OMA arrives on time 80.6% of the time; the return trip, OMA → SEA, arrives on time 85.1% of the time, a 4.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SEA → OMA spends 28.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,368-mile trip: 22.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SEA and 5.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at OMA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where SEA to OMA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SEA to OMA struggles most at 7 AM: 83.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.2 points behind the 88.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
SEA to OMA holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.8% on time to their 80.1%, a 5.7 points lead.
July is kinder to SEA to OMA than to routes of similar length: 78.6% on time against 69.7%, 8.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.9 points.
SEA to OMA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 83.1% | routes of similar length | 88.3% | −5.2 pts | 325 here, 147,338 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 85.8% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | +5.7 pts | 218 here, 239,626 there |
| Month: July | 78.6% | routes of similar length | 69.7% | +8.9 pts | 224 here, 194,576 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
32 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 1,479 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at OMA after arriving from SEA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.1% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.8% | 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 0.47% of the time and diverts 0.47% 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 32 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,479 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SEA → OMA flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 84.5% of the time, against 70.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 14.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 83.1% on time from 330 flights
- 8 AM: 83.7% on time from 245 flights
- 9 AM: 84.5% on time from 511 flights
- 10 AM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 70.0% on time from 354 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SEA → 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 SEA → OMA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SEA → OMA, at 34.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 84.5% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 70.0%.
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 | 1,479 | 80.6% | 0.47% | -4 min | 3.3% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS312 Alaska Airlines | 9:00 AM | 1,085 | 83.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.9% against 79.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,479 SEA → 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