Carrier performance at one airport
AA→MSY
American Airlines at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International
- Departures
- 7,506
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #6 of 12
American Airlines at New Orleans lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 7,506 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 7,577 at 84.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 2 points behind the 78.5% 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
76.7%
7,311 completed departures
Avg delay
102 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.21%
At MSY, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at MSY
These figures cover 7,506 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at MSY, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.2% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 68.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,311 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 7,577 | 84.2% | 74 min | 2.09% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,803 | 83.9% | 74 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 807 | 81.6% | 74 min | 2.97% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 630 | 79.0% | 84 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| Envoy Air | 813 | 78.5% | 71 min | 1.72% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 7,506 | 76.7% | 102 min | 2.21% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 18,310 | 76.7% | 54 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,961 | 76.4% | 74 min | 2.70% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 736 | 73.8% | 52 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| PSA Airlines | 892 | 72.2% | 122 min | 5.61% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 943 | 69.6% | 89 min | 1.91% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,311 | 68.5% | 90 min | 2.29% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.6% 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 | 2,346 | 72.7% | 101 min | 3.41% | C− |
| MSY to CLT · Charlotte | 1,644 | 82.6% | 98 min | 1.40% | B |
| MSY to MIA · Miami | 1,307 | 80.5% | 89 min | 1.30% | B |
| MSY to PHL · Philadelphia | 621 | 81.6% | 145 min | 1.61% | B |
| MSY to DCA · Washington | 458 | 74.4% | 81 min | 3.06% | C− |
| MSY to ORD · Chicago | 400 | 70.3% | 137 min | 2.25% | C |
| MSY to PHX · Phoenix | 378 | 77.1% | 104 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| MSY to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 345 | 60.7% | 97 min | 2.90% | 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 32 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,206 flights85.3%
- 8am–11am1,332 flights83.7%
- 11am–2pm1,089 flights77.7%
- 2pm–5pm1,183 flights72.1%
- 5pm–8pm1,608 flights62.6%
- 8pm–5am88 flights53.1%
Scale runs 45% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 53.1% on time, against 85.3% 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 2,206 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 67.3% on time, 15 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
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 175,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 174,716 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.21% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.39%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 7,506 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 67.3%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 7,311 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 arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.3% of the 7,506 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at MSY?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.2% on time across 7,577 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 68.5%, a gap of 16 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 85.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 53.1%, 32 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 67.3% on time, compared with 82.3% in February. Across the year that is 15 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.