Carrier performance at one airport
AA→MSY
American Airlines at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International
- Departures
- 7,594
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #7 of 12
American Airlines at New Orleans lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 7,594 flights, of which United Airlines flew 6,748 at 84.4% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs about a point behind the 77.9% weighted average across all carriers at MSY. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
76.5%
7,413 completed departures
Avg delay
105 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.11%
At MSY, this carrier only
Rank here
#7
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at MSY
These figures cover 7,594 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at MSY, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 84.4% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 67.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,443 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 6,748 | 84.4% | 78 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 7,529 | 83.1% | 78 min | 2.15% | B |
| Republic Airways | 770 | 80.6% | 66 min | 3.25% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 783 | 80.1% | 64 min | 1.53% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 570 | 77.5% | 86 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,250 | 76.7% | 73 min | 3.11% | B− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 7,594 | 76.5% | 105 min | 2.11% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 18,327 | 75.8% | 54 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 729 | 74.5% | 54 min | 0.96% | C+ |
| PSA Airlines | 895 | 74.4% | 123 min | 6.26% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,117 | 67.5% | 89 min | 2.42% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,443 | 67.2% | 85 min | 3.05% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.3% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from MSY
American Airlines operates 8 routes out of MSY with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSY to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,364 | 74.3% | 104 min | 2.88% | C |
| MSY to CLT · Charlotte | 1,624 | 81.8% | 99 min | 1.35% | B |
| MSY to MIA · Miami | 1,293 | 80.6% | 84 min | 1.24% | B |
| MSY to PHL · Philadelphia | 686 | 79.9% | 140 min | 2.19% | B |
| MSY to DCA · Washington | 480 | 72.8% | 90 min | 2.50% | C |
| MSY to ORD · Chicago | 425 | 67.8% | 146 min | 3.06% | C− |
| MSY to PHX · Phoenix | 371 | 77.4% | 111 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| MSY to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 345 | 59.3% | 101 min | 3.19% | D− |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 34 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,072 flights86.3%
- 8am–11am1,414 flights84.3%
- 11am–2pm1,049 flights78.9%
- 2pm–5pm1,314 flights70.5%
- 5pm–8pm1,639 flights62.2%
- 8pm–5am106 flights52.5%
Scale runs 45% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 52.5% on time, against 86.3% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,072 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 66.6% on time, 16 points below February, the best at 82.3%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. March was the busiest month here, with 768 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 183,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 183,362 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.11% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.
10.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 7,594 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 82.3% on time and July 66.6%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 7,413 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at MSY
How often is American Airlines at MSY delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.5% of the 7,594 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at MSY?
United Airlines leads at 84.4% on time across 6,748 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 67.2%, a gap of 17 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at MSY?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 52.5%, 34 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on American Airlines at MSY?
July is the weakest month at 66.6% on time, compared with 82.3% in February. Across the year that is 16 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) all carriers
- MSY to DFW route record74.3%
- MSY to CLT route record81.8%
- MSY to MIA route record80.6%
- MSY to PHL route record79.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.