Airport month record

MSYOCT

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International in October 2025

Departures: 4,699
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 10

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at MSY, see live FAA status.

MSY in October lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 79.7%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 4,699 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 668 at 86.8% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 86.8% on time across 668 flights.

On time

78.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,667 completed departures

Avg delay

56 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.53%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

78.5%

MSY across all twelve months

These figures cover 4,699 departures from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International in October 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

October next to MSY's other months

Against MSY's own year, October ran level with the twelve-month rate of 78.5%, which makes it number seven of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for MSY in October, at 0.53% against 1.47% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 85.9% on time and November 81.1%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.

MSY month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	4,039	71.9%	82 min	1.81%	C
August 2025	3,739	80.2%	80 min	1.10%	B
September 2025	3,619	85.9%	70 min	0.36%	A+
October 2025 (this page)	4,699	78.9%	56 min	0.53%	B+
November 2025	4,314	81.1%	80 min	1.27%	B
December 2025	4,152	78.0%	74 min	1.28%	B
January 2026	3,901	84.9%	72 min	4.13%	B−
February 2026	4,111	82.8%	68 min	1.82%	B
March 2026	4,485	75.3%	75 min	2.79%	B
April 2026	4,428	80.1%	63 min	0.65%	B+
May 2026	4,194	73.5%	69 min	0.83%	C+
June 2026	3,709	70.0%	78 min	1.11%	C

Departure window

The best time of day to leave MSY in October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am924 flights88.8%
8am–11am753 flights88.2%
11am–2pm773 flights79.7%
2pm–5pm963 flights73.8%
5pm–8pm946 flights69.1%
8pm–5am340 flights71.2%

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 88.8% of the time, against 69.1% for the evening window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 963 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 64.8%. 24 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at MSY in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 76.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,759 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at MSY in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	1,759	76.2%	47 min	0.34%	B+
American Airlines	715	77.6%	64 min	0.84%	B+
Delta Air Lines	668	86.8%	68 min	0.45%	A+
United Airlines	637	84.4%	53 min	0.47%	B+
Spirit Airlines	525	77.5%	64 min	0.76%	B+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	106	61.9%	75 min	0.94%	D+
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	85	83.5%	65 min	0.00%	B+
Envoy Airthin sample	65	86.2%	50 min	0.00%	A+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	53	63.5%	66 min	1.89%	D
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	45	59.1%	76 min	2.22%	D

Delta leads Southwest by 11 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of MSY in October

Routes from MSY in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
MSY to ATL · Atlanta	393	84.7%	51 min	0.00%	B+
MSY to IAH · Houstonthin sample	286	81.7%	49 min	0.35%	B+
MSY to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	258	75.6%	61 min	1.55%	B
MSY to ORD · Chicagothin sample	235	78.7%	53 min	0.00%	B+
MSY to DEN · Denverthin sample	224	81.2%	40 min	0.45%	B+
MSY to DAL · Dallasthin sample	224	79.2%	52 min	1.34%	B
MSY to MCO · Orlandothin sample	216	82.3%	67 min	0.46%	B+
MSY to HOU · Houstonthin sample	206	79.1%	45 min	0.00%	B+
MSY to AUS · Austinthin sample	198	81.8%	56 min	0.00%	B+
MSY to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	175	80.3%	63 min	0.00%	B+
MSY to CLT · Charlottethin sample	164	85.4%	54 min	0.00%	A+
MSY to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	163	69.3%	40 min	0.00%	C+
MSY to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	153	71.9%	61 min	0.00%	C+
MSY to MIA · Miamithin sample	139	81.8%	58 min	1.44%	B
MSY to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	120	68.1%	59 min	3.33%	C−
MSY to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	116	83.2%	63 min	1.72%	B
MSY to EWR · Newarkthin sample	115	70.8%	77 min	1.74%	C
MSY to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	114	76.3%	42 min	0.00%	B+
MSY to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	109	76.9%	41 min	0.92%	B+
MSY to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	105	76.9%	60 min	0.95%	B+
MSY to TPA · Tampathin sample	102	78.0%	57 min	0.98%	B+
MSY to MDW · Chicagothin sample	97	85.6%	47 min	0.00%	A+
MSY to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	97	77.1%	62 min	1.03%	B
MSY to BOS · Bostonthin sample	95	47.4%	86 min	0.00%	F+
MSY to DTW · Detroitthin sample	92	90.2%	65 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held MSY up in October

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 56,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
43%
National Airspace System
30%
Carrier
23%
Extreme weather
4%
Security
0%

43% 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 56,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 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 55,562 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.53%, below the national 0.53% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.3%. 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 last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from MSY in October

For a October trip through MSY: expect 78.9% on time and 0.53% cancelled, going by October 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY), the whole year
MSY in July71.9%
MSY in August80.2%
MSY in September85.9%
MSY in November81.1%
MSY in December78.0%
MSY in January84.9%
MSY in February82.8%
MSY in March75.3%
MSY in April80.1%
MSY in May73.5%
MSY in June70.0%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures