Flight profile · Delta Air Lines
DL2085
New Orleans (MSY) to Los Angeles (LAX) · scheduled 6:15 AM – 8:28 AM
How DL2085 performs
784 operations, June 2024 – July 2026.
DL2085 arrived on time 93.0% of the time, against 81.3% for all MSY → LAX flights, so this departure is 11.7 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against Delta Air Lines’ own flights on this route it is 7.9 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 784 operations, June 2024 – July 2026 · If DL2085 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
What stands out
How DL2085 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight runs unusually far ahead of the MSY → LAX route as a whole, better than 93% of 11,788 comparable flight numbers.
93.0% on time for this specific departure, against 81.3% for every MSY → LAX flight.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – July 2026 · The one thing about this specific departure that ranks most extreme against every other published flight number, out of everything FlyerIntel checks — shown only when something clears a real statistical bar, not for every flight.
Where DL2085 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
Ask for the position of DL2085 right now, if receivers on the ground are hearing it. Nothing is requested until you press the button.
Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL2085 | 93.0% | 1.28% | -14 min | 2.5% | 784 |
| Delta Air Lines on MSY → LAX | 85.1% | 0.96% | -11 min | 5.4% | 2,903 |
| All MSY → LAX flights | 81.3% | 0.88% | -7 min | 5.6% | 4,979 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – July 2026
Why DL2085 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
screening or terminal security incidents
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DL2085 on MSY → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies DL2085 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
DL2085 is usually the aircraft’s first flight of the day: the schedule gives it a median of 6.6 hours on the ground at MSY, so its “inbound” is mostly the aircraft’s arrival the evening before.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, DL2085 pushed back an average of 3 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 2 minutes early.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into MSY just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 733 of 774 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.
Against the network at the same turn length
| Share of departures | Inbound landed 15+ late | Left 15+ late after a late inbound | Left 15+ late after an on-time inbound |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL2085 | 21% | 7% | 5% |
| Network, same turn | 29% | 12% | 9% |
A night on the ground absorbs most of a late arrival, so a late inbound matters far less on a turn this long than on a same-day one.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 6 hours or more, usually overnight. How often DL2085’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often DL2085 left 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s.
More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves MSY late, does that still matter by the time it reaches LAX?
DL2085 pushes back an average of 1.5 minutes late and reaches the gate at LAX an average of 8.0 minutes early. The 9.4 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, which is why a late pushback on this flight does not reliably become a late arrival. Its 13.4 minutes on the taxiways at MSY is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.
On arrival at LAX, DL2085 spends 12.4 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is 1.7 minutes longer than a typical LAX arrival (10.7 min).
Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached LAX. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 13,198 departures from MSY scheduled in the clock hour DL2085 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at LAX (595,170 flights), not just DL2085’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – July 2026
The hour it leaves MSY
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. DL2085 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 13,198 departures from MSY are scheduled in the 6 AM–7 AM hour over the period, against 154,321 across the whole day.
DL2085 is scheduled out of MSY at 6:15 AM, in the 6 AM–7 AM bank. Departures from MSY in that hour arrive on time 91.0% of the time against 78.7% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 12.3 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from MSY to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes DL2085 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCI→MSP Kansas City to Minneapolis | June 6, 2024 | 1 | — |
| ATL→TRI Atlanta to Blountville | May 7, 2024 – June 5, 2024 | 30 | — |
| JFK→MIA New York to Miami | April 11, 2024 – May 6, 2024 | 18 | — |
| RDU→BOS Raleigh–Durham to Boston | July 10, 2023 – April 8, 2024 | 138 | 72.8% |
| DTW→MKE Detroit to Milwaukee | January 8, 2024 – March 9, 2024 | 60 | — |
| MKE→DTW Milwaukee to Detroit | January 8, 2024 – March 9, 2024 | 60 | — |
| STL→MSP St. Louis to Minneapolis | November 5, 2023 – December 15, 2023 | 40 | — |
| DTW→IND Detroit to Indianapolis | July 2–9, 2023 | 8 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route DL2085 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
9 min late
against a median of 14 min early
Percentiles over 784 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – July 2026
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 784 records of DL2085 operating MSY → LAX, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air
Analysis last recomputed