Route profile
IAH→MSY
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to New Orleans, 305 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 51% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,035 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAH → MSY arrives on time 80.1% of the time; the return trip, MSY → IAH, arrives on time 83.2% of the time, a 3.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → MSY spends 23.3 minutes on the ground on a 305-mile trip: 19.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 4.1 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 IAH to MSY differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to MSY is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 PM: 84.4% arrive on time, 14.3 points ahead of the 70.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.8 points.
IAH to MSY struggles most at 9 AM: 84.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 2.5 points behind the 86.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
IAH to MSY holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 79.2% on time to their 76.4%, a 2.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.4 points.
In July, IAH to MSY runs 6.4 points below routes of similar length, 65.9% on time to 72.3%. Against all other routes the gap is 3.8 points.
December is kinder to IAH to MSY than to routes of similar length: 85.6% on time against 79.7%, 5.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
IAH to MSY against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 70.1% | +14.3 pts | 392 here, 24,894 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 84.3% | routes of similar length | 86.8% | −2.5 pts | 991 here, 47,770 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 79.2% | routes of similar length | 76.4% | +2.8 pts | 1,271 here, 126,613 there |
| Month: July | 65.9% | routes of similar length | 72.3% | −6.4 pts | 906 here, 96,126 there |
| Month: December | 85.6% | routes of similar length | 79.7% | +5.9 pts | 658 here, 68,983 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 305 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 IAH → MSY flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
IAH → MSY cancelled 129 of 9,035 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 70. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 57.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 122 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 129 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.
74 cancellations, 57.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
35 cancellations, 27.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
20 cancellations, 15.5% 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. 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.
129 coded cancellations were recorded on IAH → MSY; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 9,035 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MSY after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | 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 1.43% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 8,890 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,035 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → MSY flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.4% of the time, against 73.7% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 16.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 90.2% on time from 1,060 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 84.3% on time from 1,006 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 83.3% on time from 866 flights
- 12 PM: 84.5% on time from 176 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 79.1% on time from 858 flights
- 3 PM: 75.4% on time from 376 flights
- 4 PM: 75.7% on time from 898 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 71.9% on time from 1,107 flights
- 7 PM: 74.6% on time from 122 flights
- 8 PM: 75.2% on time from 1,228 flights
- 9 PM: 80.6% on time from 624 flights
- 10 PM: 84.4% on time from 397 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why IAH → 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 IAH → MSY. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → MSY, at 43.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 73.7%.
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 | 7,987 | 80.4% | 1.34% | -7 min | 7.4% |
| Spirit Airlines | 774 | 76.8% | 1.81% | -7 min | 9.2% |
United Airlines flew 91.2% of the 8,761 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 3.6 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.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.0%
- Feb: 85.8%
- Mar: 82.4%
- Apr: 82.7%
- May: 71.4%
- Jun: 68.4%
- Jul: 65.9%
- Aug: 79.9%
- Sep: 84.2%
- Oct: 88.2%
- Nov: 86.0%
- Dec: 85.6%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 22.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 68.1% from 294 flights
- August 2023: 81.9% from 268 flights
- September 2023: 73.2% from 201 flights
- October 2023: 85.2% from 257 flights
- November 2023: 86.1% from 202 flights
- December 2023: 86.6% from 188 flights
- January 2024: 75.1% from 208 flights
- February 2024: 90.6% from 224 flights
- March 2024: 77.4% from 252 flights
- April 2024: 75.3% from 249 flights
- May 2024: 63.2% from 257 flights
- June 2024: 70.6% from 237 flights
- July 2024: 49.4% from 193 flights
- August 2024: 76.8% from 235 flights
- September 2024: 84.5% from 272 flights
- October 2024: 93.9% from 279 flights
- November 2024: 89.1% from 257 flights
- December 2024: 83.5% from 253 flights
- January 2025: 87.2% from 258 flights
- February 2025: 80.9% from 247 flights
- March 2025: 84.0% from 268 flights
- April 2025: 84.9% from 259 flights
- May 2025: 71.9% from 264 flights
- June 2025: 65.9% from 241 flights
- July 2025: 67.6% from 242 flights
- August 2025: 80.6% from 248 flights
- September 2025: 91.8% from 280 flights
- October 2025: 85.3% from 286 flights
- November 2025: 82.7% from 254 flights
- December 2025: 87.1% from 224 flights
- January 2026: 87.7% from 236 flights
- February 2026: 86.3% from 227 flights
- March 2026: 85.7% from 256 flights
- April 2026: 87.4% from 270 flights
- May 2026: 79.7% from 233 flights
- June 2026: 68.4% from 206 flights
- July 2026: 74.3% from 210 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.5% against 81.1% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,035 IAH → 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