Carrier route record
OHMSY→PHL
PSA Airlines · New Orleans to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 297
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 27%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with PSA Airlines.
PSA on MSY to PHL lands a B−, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 2.1 hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 297 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate PSA on MSY to PHL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
81.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 281 completed flights
Avg delay
127 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.39%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
80.5%
Every carrier on MSY to PHL, 1,117 flights
These figures cover 297 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% 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
PSA against every carrier on MSY to PHL
PSA flew 297 of the 1,117 flights on MSY to PHL, about 27% of it. Its 81.5% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 80.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three 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 Airlines (this page)thin sample | 297 | 81.5% | 127 min | 5.39% | B− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 162 | 72.6% | 110 min | 3.09% | C− |
Departure window
When PSA runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 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–8am143 flights87.7%
- 8am–11am4 flights—
- 11am–2pm76 flights71.8%
- 2pm–5pm60 flights87.3%
- 5pm–8pm14 flights—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 71.8% on time against 87.7% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 143 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
PSA on MSY to PHL through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025117 flights79.6%
- Oct–Dec 202549 flights65.2%
- Jan–Mar 202684 flights85.5%
- Apr–Jun 202647 flights95.7%
Scale runs 55% to 100%. 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 81.5% on time across 297 flights.
PSA on MSY to PHL did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 95.7% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 65.2%, a swing of 31 points on roughly 74 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, Wednesday is the strongest day at 89.2% on time and Monday the weakest at 75.6%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why PSA runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 47% of the 6,592 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.
- 47%Carrier
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%Extreme weather
- 7%National Airspace System
Extreme weather accounts for 14% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 2.2 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 6,592 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 47%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 3,110 of the 6,592 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 5.39%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in twenty 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
8.5% 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 2.1 hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 75.2% on time across 298 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 297 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 PSA on MSY to PHL
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.39% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 2.1 hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 281 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MSY to PHL, every carrier
- PSA on PHL to MSY, the return leg
- American Airlines on MSY to PHL81.6%
- Frontier Airlines on MSY to PHL72.6%
- PSA 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.