New Orleans, LA · departure reliability
MSY
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International
- Departures
- 49,743
- Period
- June 2025 to May 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 77.4%. 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 49,743 flights, of which United Airlines flew 6,808 at 83.7% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the twelve carriers covered here at 83.7% on time across 6,808 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.3%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.52%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
United
83.7% on time here
These figures cover 50,000 flights between June 2025 and May 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. United Airlines arrives on time 83.7% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 67.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,259 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 18,315 | 76.8% | 54 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 7,606 | 83.3% | 78 min | 2.12% | B |
| American Airlines | 7,465 | 76.7% | 101 min | 2.33% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,808 | 83.7% | 76 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 3,355 | 76.1% | 75 min | 2.65% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,259 | 67.8% | 95 min | 2.38% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 896 | 68.8% | 89 min | 1.90% | C |
| Republic Airways | 886 | 81.8% | 78 min | 2.93% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 880 | 71.1% | 119 min | 6.02% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 822 | 77.8% | 83 min | 1.70% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 736 | 72.8% | 50 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 614 | 81.1% | 81 min | 0.49% | B+ |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.0% 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 78.3%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSY to ATL · Atlanta | 4,097 | 82.4% | 68 min | 1.64% | B |
| MSY to IAH · Houston | 2,997 | 81.9% | 78 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| MSY to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,827 | 72.2% | 100 min | 3.57% | C− |
| MSY to ORD · Chicago | 2,384 | 79.4% | 85 min | 2.01% | B |
| MSY to MCO · Orlando | 2,305 | 77.0% | 65 min | 1.04% | B |
| MSY to DAL · Dallas | 2,291 | 77.9% | 57 min | 1.22% | B |
| MSY to HOU · Houston | 2,265 | 76.2% | 51 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| MSY to DEN · Denver | 2,263 | 79.9% | 59 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| MSY to AUS · Austin | 2,070 | 78.5% | 64 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| MSY to DCA · Washington | 1,956 | 70.7% | 87 min | 2.91% | C |
| MSY to CLT · Charlotte | 1,769 | 83.2% | 90 min | 1.53% | B |
| MSY to MIA · Miami | 1,545 | 78.6% | 86 min | 1.88% | B |
| MSY to LAX · Los Angeles | 1,540 | 80.1% | 75 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| MSY to BNA · Nashville | 1,507 | 79.0% | 51 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| MSY to LGA · New York | 1,423 | 70.2% | 87 min | 3.37% | C− |
| MSY to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,385 | 74.7% | 67 min | 2.09% | C |
| MSY to EWR · Newark | 1,212 | 83.3% | 96 min | 2.48% | B |
| MSY to BWI · Baltimore | 1,201 | 79.8% | 57 min | 1.50% | B |
| MSY to JFK · New York | 1,146 | 77.8% | 84 min | 4.54% | B− |
| MSY to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,108 | 80.5% | 129 min | 3.34% | B− |
| MSY to TPA · Tampa | 1,097 | 76.9% | 63 min | 1.19% | B |
| MSY to MDW · Chicago | 1,023 | 77.2% | 53 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| MSY to PHX · Phoenix | 935 | 76.5% | 70 min | 0.43% | B+ |
| MSY to BOS · Boston | 859 | 61.4% | 88 min | 1.86% | D |
| MSY to DTW · Detroit | 845 | 83.0% | 79 min | 1.42% | 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–8am10,885 flights89.9%
- 8am–11am8,302 flights86.8%
- 11am–2pm7,908 flights79.6%
- 2pm–5pm10,419 flights72.0%
- 5pm–8pm9,319 flights66.1%
- 8pm–5am2,910 flights68.9%
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 89.9% of the time, against 66.1% 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.
Across the year
When MSY runs late
MSY's year swings by 18 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 68.4% on time, 18 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.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.3%. 12 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 774,000 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
- 28%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 774,000 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 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 89.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.52% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.29%.
7.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. 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.
49,743 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 68.4%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else.
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 21.7% of the 49,743 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on New Orleans (MSY)?
United Airlines leads at 83.7% on time across 6,808 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 67.8%, 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 89.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.1%, 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 68.4% on time, compared with 85.9% 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.