Carrier route record
AALGA→MSY
American Airlines · New York to New Orleans
- Flights
- 345
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 24%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on LGA to MSY sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 10 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 345 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so American on LGA to MSY runs 10 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 95 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
68.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 335 completed flights
Avg delay
87 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.61%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
70.9%
Every carrier on LGA to MSY, 1,421 flights
These figures cover 345 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.0% 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
American against every carrier on LGA to MSY
American flew 345 of the 1,421 flights on LGA to MSY, about 24% of it. Its 68.1% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 70.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number four of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 79.6% to Southwest at 55.0%. Three 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 | 719 | 79.6% | 78 min | 4.45% | B− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 4 | 75.0% | 61 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 20 | 73.7% | 48 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 345 | 68.1% | 87 min | 2.61% | C |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 333 | 55.0% | 72 min | 4.20% | D− |
Departure window
When American 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. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am3 flights—
- 8am–11am4 flights—
- 11am–2pm197 flights72.3%
- 2pm–5pm141 flights61.3%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 72.3% on time, ahead of 2pm–5pm at 61.3%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 197 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on LGA to MSY through the year
- Jul–Sep 202579 flights68.4%
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights56.7%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights81.0%
- Apr–Jun 202685 flights67.1%
Scale runs 50% to 85%. 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 68.1% on time across 345 flights.
American on LGA to MSY did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 81.0% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 56.7%, a swing of 24 points on roughly 86 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 78.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 56.9%. 21 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 54% of the 9,333 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.
- 54%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%National Airspace System
- 16%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
54% 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 9,333 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 9,333 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.61%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about 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 costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 14.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 1,183 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 60.7% on time across 345 flights, 7 points below 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 345 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 American on LGA to MSY
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 345 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 68.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 335 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LGA to MSY, every carrier
- American on MSY to LGA, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on LGA to MSY79.6%
- Southwest Airlines on LGA to MSY55.0%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- LaGuardia (LGA) 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.