Route reliability record
MSY→LAX
New Orleans to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 1,428
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,671 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 1,428 MSY to LAX flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Best time to fly MSY to LAX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.8% of the time and Tuesday flights 84.1%, against 78.3% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, 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
78.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,417 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.49%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
83.0% on time across 949 flights
These figures cover 1,428 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on MSY to LAX
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 | 83.0% | 80 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 123 | 79.3% | 104 min | 1.63% | B |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 356 | 65.4% | 55 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on MSY to LAX
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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
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 27 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am322 flights92.8%
- 8am–11am113 flights88.4%
- 11am–2pm21 flights—
- 2pm–5pm651 flights74.1%
- 5pm–8pm209 flights69.7%
- 8pm–5am112 flights66.1%
Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.8% of the time, against 66.1% for the overnight window. That is 27 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 651 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MSY to LAX by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On MSY to LAX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.8% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.1%, a wide gap of 26.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.8%
- 8–11am88.4%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm74.1%
- 5–8pm69.7%
- 8pm–5am66.1%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 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 66.7% on time, 19 points below September, the best at 86.0%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 175 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.2%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 44% of the 22,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Carrier
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 9%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 22,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 14 to one. The split is drawn from 22,135 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 44%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,669 of the 22,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.49%, below the national 1.89% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
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 runs 78.0% on time across 1,431 flights, within half a point 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 1,428 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 LAX 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. September runs 86.0% on time and July 66.7%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,417 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MSY to LAX questions
How often is MSY to LAX delayed?
About one flight in five arrives 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 1,428 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is MSY to LAX compared with the rest of the country?
78.3% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point in its favour. That is worth a B+ on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MSY to LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.1%, 27 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 MSY to LAX?
July is the weakest month at 66.7% on time, compared with 86.0% in September. Across the year that is 19 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
- LAX to MSY — the return legseparate record
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on MSY to LAX83.0%
- Spirit Airlines on MSY to LAX79.3%
- Southwest Airlines on MSY to LAX65.4%
- MSY to ATL, a related route82.2%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- MSY to IAH, a related route83.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record83.0%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record79.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record65.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. MSY to LAX and LAX to MSY 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.