Route reliability record
DCA→MSY
Washington to New Orleans
- Flights
- 1,951
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 969 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,951 DCA to MSY flights, of which American Airlines flew 457 at 73.5% on time.
Best time to fly DCA to MSY: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.3% of the time and Saturday flights 81.1%, against 73.7% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
73.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,891 completed flights
Avg delay
66 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.72%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
American
73.5% on time across 457 flights
These figures cover 1,951 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to MSY
The three carriers here are closely matched: 2 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 230 | 83.0% | 37 min | 0.43% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 457 | 73.5% | 82 min | 3.06% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 706 | 72.1% | 58 min | 1.84% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 558 | 72.0% | 72 min | 4.48% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.5% 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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Washington to New Orleans
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 1 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BWI → MSYBaltimore to New Orleans | Southwest Airlines | 75.8% | 76.7% | 1.16% | 8am–11am, Sat | — |
| 2. DCA → MSYWashington to New Orleans | American Airlines | 71.3% | 73.5% | 3.06% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. DCA → MSYWashington to New Orleans | Southwest Airlines | 70.8% | 72.1% | 1.84% | 11am–2pm, Sat | — |
| 4. DCA → MSYWashington to New Orleans | PSA Airlines | 68.8% | 72.0% | 4.48% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 30 points, against 2 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am234 flights89.3%
- 8am–11am181 flights79.4%
- 11am–2pm659 flights77.1%
- 2pm–5pm374 flights68.1%
- 5pm–8pm164 flights59.0%
- 8pm–5am339 flights66.6%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 59.0% on time, against 89.3% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 659 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 15 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.
July is the worst month at 67.4% on time, 15 points below January, the best at 82.7%. 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 189 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 81.1% on time and Thursday the weakest at 64.3%. 17 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 33,000 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.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
56% 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 33,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 17 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 32,750 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 89.3% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.72%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.6% 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 last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 969 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 71.1% on time across 1,952 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,951 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in MSY after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 82.7% on time and July 67.4%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,891 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to MSY questions
How often is DCA to MSY delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 26.3% of the 1,951 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to MSY?
American Airlines leads at 73.5% on time across 457 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 72.0%, a gap of 2 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 DCA to MSY?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 59.0%, 30 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 DCA to MSY?
July is the weakest month at 67.4% on time, compared with 82.7% in January. Across the year that is 15 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 DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on DCA to MSY83.0%
- American Airlines on DCA to MSY73.5%
- Southwest Airlines on DCA to MSY72.1%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to MSY72.0%
- DCA to BOS, a related route71.4%
- ATL to MSY, a related route81.4%
- DCA to ORD, a related route74.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.0%
- American Airlines on-time record73.5%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record72.1%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DCA to MSY and MSY to DCA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.