Route profile
MSY→EWR
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New Orleans to Newark, 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 42% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,988 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSY → EWR arrives on time 83.4% of the time; the return trip, EWR → MSY, arrives on time 80.5% of the time, a 2.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MSY → EWR spends 23.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,167-mile trip: 13.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSY and 9.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at EWR.
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.
91.8% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 60.5% for 3–6 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 EWR differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSY to EWR is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 83.2% arrive on time, 18.1 points ahead of the 65.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.8 points.
MSY to EWR struggles most at 6 PM: 56.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.9 points behind the 67.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12 points.
MSY to EWR holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 83.5% on time to their 76.0%, a 7.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
January is kinder to MSY to EWR than to routes of similar length: 89.8% on time against 77.1%, 12.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.7 points.
United Airlines does better on MSY to EWR than on its routes of similar length: 83.7% on time here, 81.1% there, 2.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.8 points.
MSY to EWR against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 65.1% | +18.1 pts | 149 here, 105,039 there |
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 56.6% | routes of similar length | 67.5% | −10.9 pts | 334 here, 146,048 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 83.5% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | +7.5 pts | 568 here, 332,592 there |
| Month: January | 89.8% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | +12.7 pts | 303 here, 174,464 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 83.7% | routes of similar length | 81.1% | +2.6 pts | 3,170 here, 302,678 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 MSY → EWR flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MSY → EWR cancelled 91 of 3,988 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 44. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 65.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 66 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 91 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.
60 cancellations, 65.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
16 cancellations, 17.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
15 cancellations, 16.5% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
91 coded cancellations were recorded on MSY → EWR; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
45 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 3,988 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at EWR after arriving from MSY.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 26% | High risk |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.9% | 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 2.28% of the time and diverts 0.45% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,879 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 45 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,988 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSY → EWR flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.8% of the time, against 60.5% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 31.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.7% on time from 1,030 flights
- 7 AM: 85.5% on time from 204 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 80.4% on time from 150 flights
- 10 AM: 88.6% on time from 489 flights
- 11 AM: 85.1% on time from 396 flights
- 12 PM: 77.0% on time from 255 flights
- 1 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 56.6% on time from 349 flights
- 7 PM: 83.3% on time from 623 flights
- 8 PM: 83.2% on time from 149 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why MSY → EWR runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 → EWR. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 83.7% | 2.03% | -12 min | 7.9% |
| Spirit Airlines | 450 | 81.0% | 2.89% | -12 min | 10.1% |
| Republic Airways | 280 | 85.3% | 4.29% | -17 min | 7.2% |
United Airlines flew 81.7% of the 3,981 flights listed. Republic Airways cancelled 4.29% of its flights here against 2.03% for United Airlines.
Republic Airways arrived on time 4.3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2235 United Airlines | 7:54 PM | 988 | 73.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 7.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 89.8%
- Feb: 86.7%
- Mar: 83.9%
- Apr: 85.4%
- May: 78.7%
- Jun: 84.2%
- Jul: 70.8%
- Aug: 78.6%
- Sep: 89.2%
- Oct: 85.3%
- Nov: 79.2%
- Dec: 89.1%
July is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 19.0 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: 90.3% from 124 flights
- April 2024: 92.4% 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: 88.2% from 125 flights
- October 2024: 91.6% from 155 flights
- November 2024: 76.4% from 142 flights
- December 2024: 86.1% from 139 flights
- January 2025: 86.8% from 124 flights
- February 2025: 76.1% from 134 flights
- March 2025: 76.9% from 136 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: 87.3% from 120 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (109)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (107)
- March 2026: 85.1% 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 85.2% against 77.2% in the 12 months before — improving by 8.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,988 MSY → EWR 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