Route profile
EWR→MSY
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Newark to New Orleans, 1,167 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 40% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,988 flights. How this is calculated
EWR → MSY arrives on time 80.5% of the time; the return trip, MSY → EWR, arrives on time 83.4% of the time, a 2.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
EWR → MSY spends 26.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,167-mile trip: 22.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at EWR and 4.8 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 EWR to MSY differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
EWR to MSY is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 76.7% arrive on time, 8.2 points ahead of the 68.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6 points.
EWR to MSY holds up on Tuesdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.3% on time to their 80.4%, a 4.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
June is kinder to EWR to MSY than to routes of similar length: 81.7% on time against 71.7%, 10 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
EWR to MSY against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 76.7% | routes of similar length | 68.5% | +8.2 pts | 429 here, 129,354 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | +4.9 pts | 537 here, 305,547 there |
| Month: June | 81.7% | routes of similar length | 71.7% | +10.0 pts | 273 here, 179,399 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 1,167 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 EWR → MSY flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
EWR → MSY cancelled 86 of 3,988 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 46. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 72.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 64 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 86 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.
62 cancellations, 72.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
13 cancellations, 15.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
11 cancellations, 12.8% 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.
86 coded cancellations were recorded on EWR → MSY; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
48 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 3,988 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MSY after arriving from EWR.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.0% | Some 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 2.16% of the time and diverts 0.15% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,896 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 48 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,988 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
EWR → MSY flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.2% of the time, against 71.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 17.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 88.1% on time from 601 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 85.1% on time from 181 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 87.5% on time from 156 flights
- 12 PM: 85.2% on time from 647 flights
- 1 PM: 80.7% on time from 331 flights
- 2 PM: 80.3% on time from 146 flights
- 3 PM: 76.3% on time from 199 flights
- 4 PM: 76.7% on time from 437 flights
- 5 PM to 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 67.1% on time from 238 flights
- 9 PM: 72.2% on time from 366 flights
- 10 PM: 70.7% on time from 172 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why EWR → 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 EWR → MSY. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on EWR → MSY, at 41.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.2% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 71.8%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 3,251 | 80.8% | 1.81% | -11 min | 7.8% |
| Spirit Airlines | 450 | 73.0% | 3.78% | -9 min | 12.7% |
| Republic Airways | 280 | 89.2% | 3.57% | -21 min | 3.4% |
United Airlines flew 81.7% of the 3,981 flights listed. Spirit Airlines cancelled 3.78% of its flights here against 1.81% for United Airlines.
Republic Airways arrived on time 16.2 percentage points more often than Spirit Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2468 United Airlines | 1:00 PM | 890 | 84.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 8.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.0%
- Feb: 82.5%
- Mar: 83.1%
- Apr: 83.6%
- May: 77.1%
- Jun: 81.7%
- Jul: 71.9%
- Aug: 75.9%
- Sep: 86.4%
- Oct: 83.6%
- Nov: 79.1%
- Dec: 77.8%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 14.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (87)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (88)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- March 2024: 81.5% from 124 flights
- April 2024: 85.5% from 120 flights
- May 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- September 2024: 90.0% from 125 flights
- October 2024: 90.9% from 155 flights
- November 2024: 76.4% from 141 flights
- December 2024: 76.1% from 139 flights
- January 2025: 79.5% from 125 flights
- February 2025: 79.1% from 134 flights
- March 2025: 87.2% from 137 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (65)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (68)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (74)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (109)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (107)
- March 2026: 80.3% from 124 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (111)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (86)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (80)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.9% against 78.8% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,988 EWR → 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