Carrier route record
NKLAX→MSY
Spirit Airlines · Los Angeles to New Orleans
- Flights
- 126
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 9%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Spirit Airlines.
Spirit on LAX to MSY sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 126 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Spirit on LAX to MSY from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 122 completed flights
Avg delay
118 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.17%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
78.0%
Every carrier on LAX to MSY, 1,431 flights
These figures cover 126 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Spirit against every carrier on LAX to MSY
Spirit flew 126 of the 1,431 flights on LAX to MSY, about 9% of it. Its 74.6% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 78.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 81.5% to Southwest at 69.9%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 949 | 81.5% | 69 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines (this page)thin sample | 126 | 74.6% | 118 min | 3.17% | C− |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 356 | 69.9% | 44 min | 0.28% | C+ |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When Spirit runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 11 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am58 flights75.9%
- 11am–2pm21 flights—
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am47 flights86.7%
Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is the strongest at 86.7% on time. The full set of windows spans 11 points.
Across the year
Spirit on LAX to MSY through the year
- Jul–Sep 202519 flights—
- Oct–Dec 2025100 flights74.2%
- Jan–Mar 20267 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 74.6% on time across 126 flights.
Split by quarter, Spirit on LAX to MSY logged 19 flights in Jul–Sep 2025, 100 flights in Oct–Dec 2025 and 7 flights in Jan–Mar 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 74.6% annual figure is the one to use.
Arrival by arrival
How late Spirit on LAX to MSY runs when it is late
The 31 late arrivals split 10 under half an hour, 6 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 15 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early29 flights23.8%
- Within 15 min62 flights50.8%
- 15–29 min late10 flights8.2%
- 30–59 min late6 flights4.9%
- 1–2 hours late4 flights3.3%
- 2+ hours late11 flights9.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 122 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
4 of 32 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 13% of them. 3 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Spirit on LAX to MSY
The latest arrival of the period was on 22 September 2025, 12 hours 4 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across September, October and December, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 22 September 2025 | 12 hours 4 minutes | Carrier |
| 26 October 2025 | 10 hours 7 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 22 December 2025 | 4 hours 19 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 25 October 2025 | 3 hours 42 minutes | Carrier |
| 1 December 2025 | 2 hours 35 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Spirit runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 3,646 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 3,646 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 42 to one. The split is drawn from 3,646 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 1,553 of the 3,646 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.17%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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 costs
12.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 1,671 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 79.3% on time across 123 flights, 5 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 5 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 126 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Spirit on LAX to MSY
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.17% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8pm–5am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 122 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to MSY, every carrier
- Spirit on MSY to LAX, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to MSY81.5%
- Southwest Airlines on LAX to MSY69.9%
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.