Route profile
DTW→MSY
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Detroit to New Orleans, 926 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 84% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,459 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DTW → MSY arrives on time 83.0% of the time; the return trip, MSY → DTW, arrives on time 83.4% of the time.
DTW → MSY spends 24.5 minutes on the ground on a 926-mile trip: 17.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DTW and 7.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at MSY.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 93% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines (83.3% on time) and Spirit Airlines (81.8%) are close together here.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DTW to MSY differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DTW to MSY is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 83.8% arrive on time, 10 points ahead of the 73.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
DTW to MSY struggles most at 8 AM: 84.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 2.4 points behind the 86.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
DTW to MSY holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 85.9% on time to their 76.7%, a 9.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.7 points.
June is kinder to DTW to MSY than to routes of similar length: 81.7% on time against 71.5%, 10.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
DTW to MSY against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 73.8% | +10.0 pts | 538 here, 177,548 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 84.0% | routes of similar length | 86.4% | −2.4 pts | 1,109 here, 196,330 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 85.9% | routes of similar length | 76.7% | +9.2 pts | 377 here, 429,031 there |
| Month: June | 81.7% | routes of similar length | 71.5% | +10.2 pts | 175 here, 236,400 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 926 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
30 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 2,459 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MSY after arriving from DTW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.2% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.3% | 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 1.06% 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 2,429 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 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,459 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DTW → MSY flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 86.7% of the time, against 77.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 9.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 84.0% on time from 1,129 flights
- 9 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 84.7% on time from 171 flights
- 2 PM: 83.8% on time from 544 flights
- 3 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DTW → MSY runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 DTW → MSY. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,837 | 83.3% | 1.25% | -6 min | 4.0% |
| Spirit Airlines | 597 | 81.8% | 0.50% | -8 min | 5.7% |
Delta Air Lines flew 75.5% of the 2,434 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL2790 Delta Air Lines | 8:45 AM | 1,057 | 84.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.6%
- Feb: 83.0%
- Mar: 85.3%
- Apr: 84.2%
- May: 81.5%
- Jun: 81.7%
- Jul: 74.0%
- Aug: 82.6%
- Sep: 87.6%
- Oct: 90.1%
- Nov: 87.9%
- Dec: 80.5%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 16.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.0% against 80.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 4.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,459 DTW → 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