MSY → ATL Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · MSYNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

New Orleans airport profile →

Destination · ATLNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:52 UTC

Atlanta airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

71/ 100Good

Better than 65% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 13,485 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

82.0%

10,891 of 13,284

Cancellation rate

1.33%

180 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-6 min

Average 5.4 min

Severe delays

5.8%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

68 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

13,485

4 carriers

MSY → ATL arrives on time 82.0% of the time; the return trip, ATL → MSY, arrives on time 78.0% of the time, a 4.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

MSY → ATL spends 25.0 minutes on the ground on a 425-mile trip: 14.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSY and 10.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 99% of 2,692 comparable routes.

Delta Air Lines arrived on time 84.7% of the time, against 56.9% for Frontier Airlines, flying the exact same route.

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.

Why MSY → ATL flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

MSY → ATL cancelled 180 of 13,485 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 75. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 51.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 147 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather51.1%

Airline46.1%

Security1.7%

Air traffic1.1%

Of 180 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 147

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

92 cancellations, 51.1% of the total.

The airline1 in 162

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

83 cancellations, 46.1% of the total.

Security1 in 4,495

A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.

3 cancellations, 1.7% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 6,743

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

2 cancellations, 1.1% 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.

180 coded cancellations were recorded on MSY → ATL; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

33 min late

against a median of 6 min early

Arrived an hour or more late5.8%

Typical delay when late68 min

Cancelled1.33%

Landed somewhere else0.16%

Percentiles over 13,485 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at ATL after arriving from MSY.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, MSY → ATL arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	34%	Likely to miss
45 min	17%	High risk
60 min	11%	Some risk
90 min	5.7%	Some risk
120 min	3.7%	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 1.33% 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 13,284 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 33 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 13,485 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

MSY → ATL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.1% of the time, against 73.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 17.1 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (MSY).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 7.3 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 4.4 points.

On-time arrival rate for MSY to ATL by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures after 8 PM (299 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for MSY to ATL. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	94.1% on time206 flights	90.9% on time135 flights	97.7% on time131 flights	93.1% on time207 flights	94.6% on time207 flights	95.3% on time174 flights	91.9% on time200 flights
6 AM–7 AM	82.5% on time182 flights	91.4% on time225 flights	91.5% on time226 flights	93.3% on time181 flights	88.2% on time181 flights	85.4% on time160 flights	82.9% on time168 flights
7 AM–8 AM	87.1% on time172 flights	88.3% on time156 flights	90.3% on time156 flights	88.0% on time167 flights	90.4% on time166 flights	87.2% on time150 flights	90.1% on time175 flights
8 AM–9 AM	33 flights, too few to score	27 flights, too few to score	24 flights, too few to score	37 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	105 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	79.5% on time127 flights	89.7% on time157 flights	92.4% on time159 flights	91.5% on time131 flights	86.2% on time126 flights	91.9% on time155 flights	82.9% on time155 flights
11 AM–12 PM	78.2% on time144 flights	90.8% on time132 flights	91.7% on time133 flights	82.6% on time139 flights	82.0% on time143 flights	95 flights, too few to score	74.1% on time136 flights
12 PM–1 PM	112 flights, too few to score	84.9% on time121 flights	111 flights, too few to score	81.0% on time128 flights	111 flights, too few to score	81.4% on time120 flights	77.3% on time134 flights
1 PM–2 PM	96 flights, too few to score	78 flights, too few to score	82 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	110 flights, too few to score	92 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	81 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	65.3% on time177 flights	85.0% on time148 flights	79.5% on time163 flights	80.7% on time176 flights	75.7% on time174 flights	82.8% on time172 flights	67.7% on time188 flights
4 PM–5 PM	62 flights, too few to score	44 flights, too few to score	35 flights, too few to score	63 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score	32 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	67.5% on time196 flights	76.5% on time185 flights	84.6% on time185 flights	71.7% on time189 flights	69.3% on time198 flights	74.8% on time161 flights	61.0% on time202 flights
6 PM–7 PM	80.7% on time120 flights	118 flights, too few to score	116 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	71.3% on time163 flights	36 flights, too few to score	44 flights, too few to score	77.7% on time166 flights	68.7% on time169 flights	48 flights, too few to score	57.1% on time165 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM90.1%

9 AM–12 PM86.4%

12–3 PM79.9%

3–6 PM73.7%

6–9 PM73.0%

9 PM–5 AM76.2%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why MSY → ATL runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft41.4%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline32.0%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control22.5%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather3.8%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.2%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MSY → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MSY → ATL, at 41.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.1% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 73.0%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of MSY to ATL: 2.4 times the normal rate at MSY and 3.3 times at ATL. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: MSY 3.2% against 1.3%, ATL 3.4% against 1.0%. Flights that did leave ATL in bad weather arrived on time 66.5% of the time, against 80.2% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from MSY and ATL in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	MSY	ATL
Cancelled in bad weather	3.2%	3.4%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.3%	1.0%
Arrived on time, bad weather	69.4%	66.5%
Arrived on time, normal hours	79.5%	80.2%
Departures in bad weather	12,426	105,854

Southwest Airlines (2.5% cancelled against 3.8% for the other carriers at MSY) cancelled fewer departures from MSY in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly worse. One more carrier flies this route but has too few bad-weather departures from MSY to compare.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at MSY

All departures from MSY

Cancellation rates in bad weather at MSY for the airlines that fly MSY to ATL, against the other carriers at MSY in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Southwest Airlines	4,584	2.5%below the others	3.8%
Delta Air Lines	1,805	3.0%about level	3.3%
Spirit Airlines	1,047	3.3%about level	3.2%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from MSY and ATL, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from MSY on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: MSY (airlines), ATL, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
Delta Air Lines	9,884	84.7%	1.40%	-8 min	5.2%
Southwest Airlines	2,090	77.4%	0.72%	-1 min	5.3%
Spirit Airlines	1,135	75.0%	1.32%	-4 min	8.2%
Frontier Airlines	374	56.9%	3.21%	9 min	17.4%

Delta Air Lines flew 73.3% of the 13,483 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 3.21% of its flights here against 0.72% for Southwest Airlines.

Delta Air Lines arrived on time 27.8 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
DL2522 Delta Air Lines	7:30 AM	785	88.9%
DL1534 Delta Air Lines	6:30 AM	771	89.3%
DL1424 Delta Air Lines	11:36 AM	744	85.5%
DL1547 Delta Air Lines	5:30 AM	670	93.3%

DL1547 (5:30 AM) arrived on time 93.3% of the time, 7.8 points more often than DL1424 (11:36 AM) at 85.5%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon78.4%

Tue85.5%

Wed88.3%

Thu84.1%

Fri80.5%

Sat84.3%

Sun74.5%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 13.8 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 17.4 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.4% against 81.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 13,485 MSY → ATL 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

MSY airport ATL airport Return direction ATL → MSY

MSY→ATL

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why MSY → ATL flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why MSY → ATL runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at MSY

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology