Route profile
MSY→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New Orleans to Baltimore, 998 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 64% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,522 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSY → BWI arrives on time 80.4% of the time; the return trip, BWI → MSY, arrives on time 74.4% of the time, a 6.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MSY → BWI spends 16.8 minutes on the ground on a 998-mile trip: 11.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSY and 5.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 92% of 4,023 comparable routes.
94.4% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 62.9% for 6–9 PM.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where MSY to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSY to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 84.3% arrive on time, 8.6 points ahead of the 75.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
MSY to BWI struggles most at 5 PM: 61.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.9 points behind the 67.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
MSY to BWI holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 81.6% on time to their 75.5%, a 6.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.4 points.
December is kinder to MSY to BWI than to routes of similar length: 87.3% on time against 77.6%, 9.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on MSY to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 80.6% on time here, 75.6% there, 5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.2 points.
MSY to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 84.3% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | +8.6 pts | 216 here, 175,572 there |
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 61.4% | routes of similar length | 67.3% | −5.9 pts | 329 here, 183,706 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 81.6% | routes of similar length | 75.5% | +6.1 pts | 533 here, 452,114 there |
| Month: December | 87.3% | routes of similar length | 77.6% | +9.7 pts | 291 here, 254,598 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 80.6% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | +5.0 pts | 3,013 here, 714,480 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 998 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
36 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 3,522 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from MSY.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 40% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.9% | 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 1.36% of the time and diverts 0.28% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,464 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,522 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSY → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 94.4% of the time, against 62.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 31.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.4% on time from 328 flights
- 6 AM: 94.6% on time from 705 flights
- 7 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 85.2% on time from 185 flights
- 10 AM: 90.7% on time from 282 flights
- 11 AM: 78.7% on time from 169 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 84.3% on time from 221 flights
- 2 PM: 75.4% on time from 120 flights
- 3 PM: 68.5% on time from 260 flights
- 4 PM: 70.5% on time from 287 flights
- 5 PM: 61.4% on time from 337 flights
- 6 PM: 63.1% on time from 150 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why MSY → BWI 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 MSY → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MSY → BWI, at 53.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 94.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 62.9%.
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 | 3,063 | 80.6% | 1.34% | -3 min | 4.9% |
| Spirit Airlines | 441 | 79.0% | 1.59% | -4 min | 9.2% |
Southwest Airlines flew 87.4% of the 3,504 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.0%
- Feb: 83.8%
- Mar: 79.2%
- Apr: 86.2%
- May: 78.6%
- Jun: 72.0%
- Jul: 71.1%
- Aug: 80.1%
- Sep: 85.2%
- Oct: 81.3%
- Nov: 84.3%
- Dec: 87.3%
July is historically the weakest month and December the strongest, a spread of 16.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (73)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (64)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (59)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (72)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (75)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (70)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (66)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (113)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (113)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (109)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (95)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (103)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- March 2025: 88.0% from 126 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (107)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (76)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (79)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (97)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (100)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (93)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (86)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (89)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.8% against 81.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,522 MSY → BWI 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