Route profile
DEN→MSY
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to New Orleans, 1,062 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 46% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,067 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → MSY arrives on time 75.6% of the time; the return trip, MSY → DEN, arrives on time 79.8% of the time, a 4.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → MSY spends 23.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,062-mile trip: 18.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 4.7 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 DEN to MSY differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to MSY struggles most at 8 PM: 55.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.2 points behind the 65.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12 points.
DEN to MSY is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 84.1% arrive on time, 8.8 points ahead of the 75.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
Saturday is the day DEN to MSY slips furthest against routes of similar length, 72.0% on time where they average 77.1%, 5.1 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
In June, DEN to MSY runs 9.6 points below routes of similar length, 62.0% on time to 71.6%. Against all other routes the gap is 10.7 points.
December is kinder to DEN to MSY than to routes of similar length: 83.8% on time against 77.1%, 6.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5 points.
DEN to MSY against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 55.4% | routes of similar length | 65.6% | −10.2 pts | 404 here, 138,504 there |
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 84.1% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +8.8 pts | 853 here, 160,723 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 72.0% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | −5.1 pts | 768 here, 384,687 there |
| Month: June | 62.0% | routes of similar length | 71.6% | −9.6 pts | 479 here, 230,661 there |
| Month: December | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | +6.7 pts | 630 here, 242,331 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 1,062 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 DEN → MSY flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DEN → MSY cancelled 73 of 7,067 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 97. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 47.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 202 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 73 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.
35 cancellations, 47.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
34 cancellations, 46.6% 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, 5.5% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
73 coded cancellations were recorded on DEN → MSY; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
47 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 7,067 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MSY after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | High risk |
| 90 min | 7.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.2% | 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 1.03% of the time and diverts 0.16% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,983 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 47 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,067 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → MSY flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.1% of the time, against 60.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 28.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 85.9% on time from 157 flights
- 7 AM: 87.5% on time from 347 flights
- 8 AM: 90.9% on time from 389 flights
- 9 AM: 83.7% on time from 1,063 flights
- 10 AM: 81.9% on time from 511 flights
- 11 AM: 73.1% on time from 228 flights
- 12 PM: 83.2% on time from 146 flights
- 1 PM: 84.1% on time from 860 flights
- 2 PM: 65.2% on time from 342 flights
- 3 PM: 62.4% on time from 214 flights
- 4 PM: 62.6% on time from 217 flights
- 5 PM: 72.2% on time from 1,229 flights
- 6 PM: 68.5% on time from 365 flights
- 7 PM: 59.6% on time from 406 flights
- 8 PM: 55.4% on time from 408 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DEN → 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 DEN → MSY. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → MSY, at 49.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.1% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 60.9%.
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 | 3,456 | 70.4% | 0.67% | 1 min | 8.7% |
| United Airlines | 3,031 | 81.8% | 1.29% | -8 min | 6.0% |
| Frontier Airlines | 580 | 75.2% | 1.90% | -7 min | 8.8% |
Southwest Airlines flew 48.9% of the 7,067 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 1.90% of its flights here against 0.67% for Southwest Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 11.4 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Monday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 6.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.4%
- Feb: 79.4%
- Mar: 78.4%
- Apr: 76.9%
- May: 69.2%
- Jun: 62.0%
- Jul: 62.1%
- Aug: 69.5%
- Sep: 78.4%
- Oct: 81.0%
- Nov: 85.4%
- Dec: 83.8%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 23.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 62.7% from 170 flights
- August 2023: 71.0% from 164 flights
- September 2023: 72.3% from 137 flights
- October 2023: 77.9% from 195 flights
- November 2023: 85.6% from 208 flights
- December 2023: 83.1% from 231 flights
- January 2024: 71.6% from 222 flights
- February 2024: 81.1% from 213 flights
- March 2024: 78.7% from 244 flights
- April 2024: 74.1% from 202 flights
- May 2024: 66.8% from 201 flights
- June 2024: 66.7% from 164 flights
- July 2024: 63.8% from 167 flights
- August 2024: 64.7% from 153 flights
- September 2024: 81.1% from 148 flights
- October 2024: 88.7% from 195 flights
- November 2024: 81.3% from 195 flights
- December 2024: 89.5% from 210 flights
- January 2025: 78.9% from 225 flights
- February 2025: 71.0% from 214 flights
- March 2025: 83.6% from 220 flights
- April 2025: 71.4% from 201 flights
- May 2025: 71.0% from 194 flights
- June 2025: 53.2% from 157 flights
- July 2025: 52.2% from 160 flights
- August 2025: 72.8% from 148 flights
- September 2025: 81.3% from 155 flights
- October 2025: 76.9% from 225 flights
- November 2025: 89.3% from 197 flights
- December 2025: 78.4% from 192 flights
- January 2026: 85.5% from 173 flights
- February 2026: 86.4% from 206 flights
- March 2026: 73.0% from 229 flights
- April 2026: 84.6% from 216 flights
- May 2026: 69.8% from 206 flights
- June 2026: 65.8% from 163 flights
- July 2026: 69.3% from 167 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.0% against 74.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,067 DEN → 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