Carrier performance at one airport
DL→MSY
Delta Air Lines at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International
- Departures
- 7,577
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #1 of 12
Delta Air Lines at New Orleans earns a B. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 7,577 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 7,577 at 84.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 6 points ahead of 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
84.2%
7,396 completed departures
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.09%
At MSY, this carrier only
Rank here
#1
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at MSY
These figures cover 7,577 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 9 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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 (this page) | 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 | 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 Delta Air Lines flies from MSY
Delta Air Lines 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 ATL · Atlanta | 3,278 | 87.3% | 65 min | 1.59% | A |
| MSY to LAX · Los Angeles | 959 | 84.0% | 85 min | 0.52% | B+ |
| MSY to JFK · New York | 720 | 82.0% | 69 min | 5.56% | B− |
| MSY to LGA · New York | 719 | 76.9% | 91 min | 4.45% | B− |
| MSY to DTW · Detroit | 628 | 85.4% | 60 min | 1.59% | A |
| MSY to SLC · Salt Lake City | 455 | 92.2% | 67 min | 0.22% | A+ |
| MSY to MSP · Minneapolis | 440 | 84.1% | 87 min | 2.27% | B |
| MSY to BOS · Boston | 372 | 63.7% | 75 min | 2.15% | 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 17 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,356 flights91.9%
- 8am–11am758 flights90.6%
- 11am–2pm1,812 flights86.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,724 flights79.4%
- 5pm–8pm1,478 flights80.0%
- 8pm–5am449 flights74.5%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.9% of the time, against 74.5% for the overnight window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 1,812 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 79.1% on time, 11 points below September, the best at 90.3%. 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 707 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
38% 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 86,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 21 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 85,903 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.09% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.30%.
5.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 7,577 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: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 74.5% on time against 91.9% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 17 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 7,396 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at MSY
How often is Delta Air Lines at MSY delayed?
About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.8% of the 7,577 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines 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 Delta Air Lines at MSY?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 74.5%, 17 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 Delta Air Lines at MSY?
July is the weakest month at 79.1% on time, compared with 90.3% in September. Across the year that is 11 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.