New Orleans, LA · departure reliability
MSY
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International
- Departures
- 49,390
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Carriers
- 12
- US rank
- #38 by volume
New Orleans
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 49,390 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 7,577 at 84.2% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the twelve carriers covered here at 84.2% on time across 7,577 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.5%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.47%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Delta
84.2% on time here
These figures cover 49,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 6 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of MSY
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 18,310 | 76.7% | 54 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 7,577 | 84.2% | 74 min | 2.09% | B |
| American Airlines | 7,506 | 76.7% | 102 min | 2.21% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,803 | 83.9% | 74 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,961 | 76.4% | 74 min | 2.70% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,311 | 68.5% | 90 min | 2.29% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 943 | 69.6% | 89 min | 1.91% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 892 | 72.2% | 122 min | 5.61% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 813 | 78.5% | 71 min | 1.72% | B |
| Republic Airways | 807 | 81.6% | 74 min | 2.97% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 736 | 73.8% | 52 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 630 | 79.0% | 84 min | 0.63% | B+ |
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
Busiest routes out of MSY
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from MSY, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 78.5%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSY to ATL · Atlanta | 4,056 | 83.3% | 65 min | 1.50% | B |
| MSY to IAH · Houston | 2,961 | 82.2% | 76 min | 0.51% | B+ |
| MSY to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,804 | 72.3% | 97 min | 3.46% | C− |
| MSY to ORD · Chicago | 2,400 | 78.1% | 86 min | 2.17% | B |
| MSY to DAL · Dallas | 2,286 | 76.9% | 58 min | 1.18% | B |
| MSY to HOU · Houston | 2,277 | 76.3% | 51 min | 0.57% | B+ |
| MSY to DEN · Denver | 2,270 | 79.8% | 59 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| MSY to MCO · Orlando | 2,268 | 77.5% | 64 min | 1.10% | B |
| MSY to AUS · Austin | 2,040 | 78.2% | 62 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| MSY to DCA · Washington | 1,952 | 71.1% | 87 min | 2.92% | C |
| MSY to CLT · Charlotte | 1,742 | 82.7% | 100 min | 1.32% | B |
| MSY to MIA · Miami | 1,529 | 79.8% | 85 min | 1.44% | B |
| MSY to LAX · Los Angeles | 1,499 | 80.1% | 73 min | 0.47% | B+ |
| MSY to BNA · Nashville | 1,495 | 78.0% | 50 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| MSY to LGA · New York | 1,421 | 71.6% | 86 min | 3.52% | C− |
| MSY to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,397 | 75.2% | 65 min | 2.08% | B |
| MSY to EWR · Newark | 1,213 | 84.5% | 88 min | 2.31% | B |
| MSY to BWI · Baltimore | 1,180 | 80.9% | 55 min | 1.44% | B |
| MSY to JFK · New York | 1,142 | 78.7% | 81 min | 4.73% | B− |
| MSY to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,117 | 80.5% | 132 min | 2.95% | B |
| MSY to TPA · Tampa | 1,078 | 77.2% | 62 min | 1.11% | B |
| MSY to MDW · Chicago | 1,018 | 77.1% | 53 min | 1.08% | B |
| MSY to PHX · Phoenix | 936 | 77.8% | 72 min | 0.43% | B+ |
| MSY to BOS · Boston | 853 | 62.7% | 85 min | 1.88% | D |
| MSY to LAS · Las Vegas | 839 | 79.3% | 56 min | 0.12% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave MSY
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 24 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am10,788 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am8,143 flights87.2%
- 11am–2pm7,883 flights80.2%
- 2pm–5pm10,453 flights72.0%
- 5pm–8pm9,265 flights66.3%
- 8pm–5am2,858 flights69.4%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.8% of the time, against 66.3% for the evening window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 10,788 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When MSY runs late
MSY's year swings by 16 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
June is the worst month at 70.0% on time, 16 points below September, the best at 85.9%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 4,699 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.5%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why MSY gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 755,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% 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 755,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 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 754,899 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 89.8% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.47% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.30%.
7.4% 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.
49,390 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Flying out of MSY
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 85.9% on time and June 70.0%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 48,516 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MSY delay questions
How often is New Orleans (MSY) delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.5% of the 49,390 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 New Orleans (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 New Orleans (MSY)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.3%, 24 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 June delays on New Orleans (MSY)?
June is the weakest month at 70.0% on time, compared with 85.9% in September. 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
- MSY to ATL — Atlanta83.3%
- MSY to IAH — Houston82.2%
- MSY to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth72.3%
- MSY to ORD — Chicago78.1%
- MSY to DAL — Dallas76.9%
- MSY to HOU — Houston76.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record76.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record84.2%
- American Airlines on-time record76.7%
- United Airlines on-time record83.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.