Carrier performance at one airport
DL→MSY
Delta Air Lines at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International
- Departures
- 7,529
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #2 of 12
Delta Air Lines at New Orleans lands a B, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 7,529 flights, of which United Airlines flew 6,748 at 84.4% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 5 points ahead of 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
83.1%
7,340 completed departures
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.15%
At MSY, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at MSY
These figures cover 7,529 flights between September 2025 and August 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. 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 (this page) | 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 | 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 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 | 86.7% | 71 min | 1.49% | A |
| MSY to LAX · Los Angeles | 949 | 83.0% | 80 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| MSY to JFK · New York | 720 | 80.1% | 70 min | 5.83% | B− |
| MSY to LGA · New York | 689 | 74.7% | 91 min | 4.93% | C− |
| MSY to DTW · Detroit | 621 | 84.1% | 75 min | 2.09% | B |
| MSY to SLC · Salt Lake City | 455 | 90.7% | 91 min | 0.22% | A+ |
| MSY to MSP · Minneapolis | 440 | 82.1% | 85 min | 2.27% | B |
| MSY to BOS · Boston | 372 | 62.9% | 83 min | 2.15% | D |
Flight by flight
Delta Air Lines flight numbers from MSY
7 Delta Air Lines flight numbers leaving MSY flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 18 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,285 flights91.5%
- 8am–11am826 flights89.5%
- 11am–2pm1,823 flights86.0%
- 2pm–5pm1,713 flights77.4%
- 5pm–8pm1,410 flights78.2%
- 8pm–5am472 flights73.3%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.5% of the time, against 73.3% for the overnight window. That is 18 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 1,823 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 72.7% on time, 18 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
- 39%Carrier
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 96,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. The split is drawn from 96,188 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.15% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.36%.
6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 7,529 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. September runs 90.3% on time and July 72.7%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 7,340 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 arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 16.9% of the 7,529 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines 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 Delta Air Lines at MSY?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 73.3%, 18 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 72.7% on time, compared with 90.3% in September. Across the year that is 18 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
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) all carriers
- MSY to ATL route record86.7%
- MSY to LAX route record83.0%
- MSY to JFK route record80.1%
- MSY to LGA route record74.7%
- 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.