Route profile
MSY→DCA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New Orleans to Washington. · 969 miles
Right now
Current conditions at both ends of this route.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Weather conditions are slightly below ideal.
Airport conditions describe the airfield, not any individual flight. An airport operating normally is not a guarantee that a specific flight will depart on time.
Route reliability
July 2023 – June 2026
Better than 11% of comparable major US routes (4,577 compared)
Calculated from 5,620 flights. How this is calculated
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – June 2026
Best time to fly
On-time arrival rate by scheduled local departure time.
MSY → DCA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.1% of the time, against 66.2% for 3–6 PM departures — a gap of 21.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Buckets with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Airlines on this route
Performance by the carrier that actually operated the flight.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 2,124 | 72.8% | 1.18% | -1 min | 8.7% |
| PSA Airlines | 1,383 | 72.0% | 5.71% | -7 min | 13.1% |
| American Airlines | 1,298 | 74.3% | 1.69% | -4 min | 10.1% |
| Republic Airways | 693 | 82.5% | 2.02% | -8 min | 5.6% |
Republic Airways arrived on time 10.5 percentage points more often than PSA Airlines on this route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Carriers with fewer than 200 flights on this route are not listed.
Other ways to fly New Orleans to Washington
Airport pairs serving the same journey, grouped by the DOT's own city-market definition. They do not perform the same way.
MSY → IAD is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 90.0% on time, against 74.1% for MSY → DCA.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Grouped by DOT city market, which places Newark with the New York airports and Baltimore with the Washington ones.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 12.1 percentage points.
By month
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 19.9 percentage points.
Historical trend
On-time arrival rate by month.
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-07 to 2026-06), on-time arrivals averaged 71.1% against 72.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026
Data and methodology
All figures on this page are calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,620 MSY → DCA flight records published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – June 2026. A flight is counted as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after its scheduled arrival time, following BTS methodology. Cancelled and diverted flights have no arrival time and are excluded from on-time rates rather than counted as late.