Route profile
BWI→MSY
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Baltimore to New Orleans, 998 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 39% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,537 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
BWI → MSY arrives on time 74.4% of the time; the return trip, MSY → BWI, arrives on time 80.4% of the time, a 6.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
BWI → MSY spends 20.0 minutes on the ground on a 998-mile trip: 14.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BWI and 5.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at MSY.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability here swings unusually widely by season, a wider month-to-month spread than 99% of 3,357 comparable routes.
87.4% on time in a typical November, against 56.2% in July.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where BWI to MSY differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BWI to MSY struggles most at 4 PM: 59.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 8.8 points behind the 67.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.6 points.
Friday is the day BWI to MSY slips furthest against routes of similar length, 70.4% on time where they average 75.5%, 5.1 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
In July, BWI to MSY runs 12 points below routes of similar length, 56.2% on time to 68.2%. Against all other routes the gap is 13.5 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on BWI to MSY arrive on time 73.7% of the time, 2 points below the 75.7% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
BWI to MSY against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 59.1% | routes of similar length | 67.9% | −8.8 pts | 149 here, 158,624 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 70.4% | routes of similar length | 75.5% | −5.1 pts | 534 here, 452,113 there |
| Month: July | 56.2% | routes of similar length | 68.2% | −12.0 pts | 381 here, 331,342 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 73.7% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | −2.0 pts | 3,035 here, 714,458 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 998 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
45 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 3,537 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MSY after arriving from BWI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.3% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.24% of the time and diverts 0.14% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,488 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 45 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,537 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BWI → MSY flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.9% of the time, against 64.1% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 23.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.9% on time from 134 flights
- 7 AM: 87.0% on time from 147 flights
- 8 AM: 85.5% on time from 435 flights
- 9 AM: 85.2% on time from 332 flights
- 10 AM: 83.2% on time from 178 flights
- 11 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 68.8% on time from 397 flights
- 3 PM: 74.5% on time from 158 flights
- 4 PM: 59.1% on time from 151 flights
- 5 PM: 62.3% on time from 149 flights
- 6 PM: 72.2% on time from 155 flights
- 7 PM: 63.0% on time from 323 flights
- 8 PM: 63.5% on time from 287 flights
- 9 PM: 62.3% on time from 302 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why BWI → MSY runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BWI → MSY. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BWI → MSY, at 40.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.9% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 64.1%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 3,079 | 73.7% | 1.27% | -1 min | 6.8% |
| Spirit Airlines | 440 | 79.5% | 1.14% | -9 min | 10.1% |
Southwest Airlines flew 87.5% of the 3,519 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 5.8 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 8.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 74.1%
- Feb: 77.2%
- Mar: 78.7%
- Apr: 76.7%
- May: 69.3%
- Jun: 64.7%
- Jul: 56.2%
- Aug: 76.5%
- Sep: 79.3%
- Oct: 82.7%
- Nov: 87.4%
- Dec: 77.1%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 31.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (73)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (64)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (59)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (71)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (75)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (70)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (64)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (92)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (94)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (113)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (113)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (109)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (100)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (101)
- March 2025: 80.6% from 126 flights
- April 2025: 82.6% from 121 flights
- May 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (109)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (75)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (81)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (97)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (100)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (93)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (86)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (89)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.9% against 75.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,537 BWI → MSY flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed