Carrier route record
F9MSY→PHL
Frontier Airlines · New Orleans to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 162
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 15%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Frontier Airlines.
Frontier on MSY to PHL sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 162 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so Frontier on MSY to PHL runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 50 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
72.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 157 completed flights
Avg delay
110 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.09%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
80.5%
Every carrier on MSY to PHL, 1,117 flights
These figures cover 162 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.1% 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
Frontier against every carrier on MSY to PHL
Frontier flew 162 of the 1,117 flights on MSY to PHL, about 15% of it. Its 72.6% on time is 8 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 88.6% to Frontier at 72.6%. Two 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 37 | 88.6% | 99 min | 5.41% | A− |
| American Airlines | 621 | 81.6% | 145 min | 1.61% | B |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 297 | 81.5% | 127 min | 5.39% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines (this page)thin sample | 162 | 72.6% | 110 min | 3.09% | C− |
Departure window
When Frontier runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 162 flights.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am24 flights—
- 11am–2pm36 flights77.1%
- 2pm–5pm7 flights—
- 5pm–8pm23 flights—
- 8pm–5am72 flights71.0%
Scale runs 65% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 77.1% on time, ahead of 8pm–5am at 71.0%. 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 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 72 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Frontier on MSY to PHL through the year
- Jul–Sep 202534 flights69.7%
- Oct–Dec 202539 flights71.1%
- Jan–Mar 202651 flights75.0%
- Apr–Jun 202638 flights73.7%
Scale runs 60% 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 72.6% on time across 162 flights.
Quarter by quarter Frontier on MSY to PHL held fairly steady: 69.7% in Jul–Sep 2025, 71.1% in Oct–Dec 2025, 75.0% in Jan–Mar 2026 and 73.7% in Apr–Jun 2026. A spread of 5 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 78.8% on time and Friday the weakest at 65.7%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Frontier runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 82% of the 4,730 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.
- 82%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%Carrier
- 7%National Airspace System
82% 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 4,730 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 82 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 4,730 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.09%, against 1.81% 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
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 12.1% 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 1,089 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 73.4% on time across 162 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 162 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 Frontier on MSY to PHL
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.09% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 11am–2pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 157 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MSY to PHL, every carrier
- Frontier on PHL to MSY, the return leg
- American Airlines on MSY to PHL81.6%
- PSA Airlines on MSY to PHL81.5%
- Frontier Airlines network-wide record
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) 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.