Holiday travel
Labor Day at MSY
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, New Orleans, LA. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against MSY’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.
The window, year by year
The window runs the Saturday through the Monday, around Labor Day (the first Monday of September). In the data: Sep 2–4, 2023; Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024; Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Compared with ordinary days, Labor Day flights were better in one and about the same in two of the three years. The gap ran from 1.3 points above usual in 2025 to 4.1 points above usual in 2024.
1.09% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Labor Day windows, against 0.90% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. The rate stayed within a quarter point of usual in all three years.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Sep 2–4, 2023 | 340 | 84.3% | 82.9% | +1.4about the same | 0.29% | 0.90% |
| 2024Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024 | 331 | 86.9% | 82.8% | +4.1better | 0.91% | 0.91% |
| 2025Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025 | 336 | 84.1% | 82.8% | +1.3about the same | 2.08% | 0.90% |
| All years3 windows | 1,007 | 85.1% | 82.9% | +2.2about the same | 1.09% | 0.90% |
Day by day
No single day has enough flights in one year to compare the years, so the days are ranked on all three years pooled: Labor Day ran lowest (82.5% on time, about level with usual) and the Sunday before Labor Day highest (87.8%, 7.6 points above usual). This cannot say whether the same day was worst or best in each year.
- Better than usual
- Worse than usual
- About the same
- What ordinary days of the same weekday had
- Lowest to highest single year
- Lighter bars: days just outside the window
Bars show the on-time arrival rate and start at 50%, not zero. A dashed stub is a day with too few flights to print a rate.
| Day | Departures against an ordinary day | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Each year: 2023, 2024, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday beforeoutside the window | 2% fewer | 72.1% | 77.9% | −5.8worse | 1.54% | 86.1 · 54.3 · 76.3 |
| Friday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 73.2% | 78.4% | −5.2worse | 1.00% | 79.1 · 64.2 · 76.7 |
| Saturday before | 4% fewer | 85.7% | 86.2% | −0.5about the same | 1.38% | — · — · — |
| Sunday before | 20% fewer | 87.8% | 80.2% | +7.6better | 1.53% | — · — · — |
| Labor Day | 3% fewer | 82.5% | 82.6% | −0.1about the same | 0.51% | 76.0 · 86.3 · 85.2 |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | about the same | 91.8% | 87.3% | +4.5better | 0.00% | — · — · — |
A dash means fewer than 120 flights stood behind the figure, or behind the ordinary days it would be compared with: too few to print a rate, and nothing is estimated in its place. “Usual” is what ordinary days of the same weekday had at the same place in the weeks around the holiday, weighted by the flights being compared.
Which departure times held up
The busiest days at MSY were Sunday, Sep 3, 2023 (108 departures), Monday, Sep 4, 2023 (129 departures), Sunday, Sep 1, 2024 (107 departures), Monday, Sep 2, 2024 (131 departures), Sunday, Aug 31, 2025 (112 departures), and Monday, Sep 1, 2025 (130 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 95.9%, 4.0 points above usual for that time of day. Those leaving 6–9 PM had the lowest: 74.3%, still 1.1 points above usual for that time of day.
Against usual for their time of day, flights leaving 3–6 PM did best (+4.5 points) and those leaving 12–3 PM did worst (−2.3 points).
On each year’s two busiest days, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 95.6%, 3.5 points above usual for that time of day. Those leaving 12–3 PM had the lowest: 78.5%, 3.6 points below usual for that time of day.
Against usual for their time of day, flights leaving 3–6 PM did best (+7.8 points) and those leaving 12–3 PM did worst (−3.6 points).
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 95.9% | 91.9% | +4.0better | 95.6% | 92.1% | +3.5better |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 89.3% | 88.7% | +0.6about the same | 93.2% | 88.1% | +5.1better |
| 12–3 PM | 80.6% | 82.9% | −2.3about the same | 78.5% | 82.1% | −3.6about the same |
| 3–6 PM | 78.8% | 74.3% | +4.5about the same | 79.9% | 72.1% | +7.8better |
| 6–9 PM | 74.3% | 73.2% | +1.1about the same | — | — | — |
| 9 PM–5 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
MSY beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts MSY’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether MSY did better or worse than the network.
| Year | MSY on time | MSY, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Sep 2–4, 2023 | 84.3% | +1.4 | 87.4% | +7.6 |
| 2024Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024 | 86.9% | +4.1 | 82.1% | +2.4 |
| 2025Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025 | 84.1% | +1.3 | 82.2% | +2.5 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at MSY, or the network view.