Route profile
DAL→MSY
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas to New Orleans, 436 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 50% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,124 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DAL → MSY arrives on time 77.1% of the time; the return trip, MSY → DAL, arrives on time 77.4% of the time.
DAL → MSY spends 17.5 minutes on the ground on a 436-mile trip: 13.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DAL and 4.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at MSY.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DAL to MSY differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DAL to MSY struggles most at 6 PM: 62.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.3 points behind the 69.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
DAL to MSY is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 AM: 93.2% arrive on time, 6.2 points ahead of the 87.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.3 points.
Thursday is the day DAL to MSY slips furthest against routes of similar length, 72.3% on time where they average 77.3%, 5 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
In June, DAL to MSY runs 8.7 points below routes of similar length, 64.9% on time to 73.6%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
DAL to MSY against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 62.0% | routes of similar length | 69.3% | −7.3 pts | 374 here, 88,699 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 93.2% | routes of similar length | 87.0% | +6.2 pts | 309 here, 107,827 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 72.3% | routes of similar length | 77.3% | −5.0 pts | 1,035 here, 240,904 there |
| Month: June | 64.9% | routes of similar length | 73.6% | −8.7 pts | 507 here, 131,884 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 436 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.
Why DAL → MSY flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DAL → MSY cancelled 94 of 7,124 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 76. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 79.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 95 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 94 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
75 cancellations, 79.8% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
15 cancellations, 16.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
4 cancellations, 4.3% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
94 coded cancellations were recorded on DAL → MSY; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
42 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 7,124 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MSY after arriving from DAL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.5% | 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 1.32% of the time and diverts 0.27% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,011 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 42 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,124 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DAL → MSY flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.8% of the time, against 63.4% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 29.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 95.4% on time from 542 flights
- 7 AM: 90.8% on time from 735 flights
- 8 AM: 93.2% on time from 314 flights
- 9 AM: 86.5% on time from 327 flights
- 10 AM: 85.6% on time from 452 flights
- 11 AM: 84.2% on time from 421 flights
- 12 PM: 75.1% on time from 420 flights
- 1 PM: 73.3% on time from 452 flights
- 2 PM: 77.6% on time from 337 flights
- 3 PM: 73.9% on time from 445 flights
- 4 PM: 71.6% on time from 466 flights
- 5 PM: 65.0% on time from 304 flights
- 6 PM: 62.0% on time from 378 flights
- 7 PM: 63.6% on time from 493 flights
- 8 PM: 67.7% on time from 417 flights
- 9 PM: 63.3% on time from 273 flights
- 10 PM: 63.5% on time from 348 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DAL → 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 DAL → MSY. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DAL → MSY, at 53.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.8% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 63.4%.
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 | 7,124 | 77.1% | 1.32% | -3 min | 6.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 11.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.1%
- Feb: 83.2%
- Mar: 76.9%
- Apr: 76.1%
- May: 70.4%
- Jun: 64.9%
- Jul: 70.5%
- Aug: 78.9%
- Sep: 78.9%
- Oct: 79.3%
- Nov: 83.5%
- Dec: 82.0%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 18.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 77.4% from 190 flights
- August 2023: 84.7% from 197 flights
- September 2023: 77.7% from 197 flights
- October 2023: 80.1% from 214 flights
- November 2023: 88.1% from 202 flights
- December 2023: 84.4% from 212 flights
- January 2024: 71.8% from 205 flights
- February 2024: 84.3% from 191 flights
- March 2024: 77.1% from 201 flights
- April 2024: 74.7% from 198 flights
- May 2024: 71.1% from 204 flights
- June 2024: 71.6% from 183 flights
- July 2024: 67.0% from 182 flights
- August 2024: 78.9% from 175 flights
- September 2024: 76.7% from 168 flights
- October 2024: 84.1% from 203 flights
- November 2024: 84.0% from 188 flights
- December 2024: 81.0% from 190 flights
- January 2025: 87.6% from 192 flights
- February 2025: 80.4% from 200 flights
- March 2025: 75.8% from 210 flights
- April 2025: 76.2% from 197 flights
- May 2025: 75.5% from 201 flights
- June 2025: 60.7% from 167 flights
- July 2025: 68.5% from 168 flights
- August 2025: 72.6% from 180 flights
- September 2025: 82.1% from 179 flights
- October 2025: 74.2% from 224 flights
- November 2025: 78.4% from 202 flights
- December 2025: 80.4% from 190 flights
- January 2026: 85.3% from 189 flights
- February 2026: 85.0% from 188 flights
- March 2026: 77.7% from 209 flights
- April 2026: 77.4% from 195 flights
- May 2026: 64.6% from 202 flights
- June 2026: 61.5% from 162 flights
- July 2026: 68.3% from 169 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.8% against 77.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,124 DAL → 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