Route profile
MSY→HOU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New Orleans to Houston, 302 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 7,035 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSY → HOU arrives on time 78.7% of the time; the return trip, HOU → MSY, arrives on time 83.0% of the time, a 4.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MSY → HOU spends 18.5 minutes on the ground on a 302-mile trip: 13.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSY and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at HOU.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where MSY to HOU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSY to HOU struggles most at 4 PM: 63.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.5 points behind the 73.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
MSY to HOU is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 78.5% arrive on time, 8.3 points ahead of the 70.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
Sunday is the day MSY to HOU slips furthest against routes of similar length, 72.4% on time where they average 75.8%, 3.4 points lower.
In March, MSY to HOU runs 8.4 points below routes of similar length, 71.2% on time to 79.6%. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
August is kinder to MSY to HOU than to routes of similar length: 85.8% on time against 79.0%, 6.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
MSY to HOU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 63.9% | routes of similar length | 73.4% | −9.5 pts | 363 here, 57,500 there |
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 78.5% | routes of similar length | 70.2% | +8.3 pts | 233 here, 30,931 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 72.4% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | −3.4 pts | 1,051 here, 130,391 there |
| Month: March | 71.2% | routes of similar length | 79.6% | −8.4 pts | 584 here, 72,467 there |
| Month: August | 85.8% | routes of similar length | 79.0% | +6.8 pts | 548 here, 75,548 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 302 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 → HOU flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MSY → HOU cancelled 79 of 7,035 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 89. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 72.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 123 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 79 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.
57 cancellations, 72.2% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
11 cancellations, 13.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
10 cancellations, 12.7% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
1 cancellation, 1.3% 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.
79 coded cancellations were recorded on MSY → HOU; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
36 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 7,035 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HOU after arriving from MSY.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.2% | 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 1.12% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,947 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 7,035 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSY → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.3% of the time, against 66.2% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 27.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.5% on time from 474 flights
- 6 AM: 94.5% on time from 623 flights
- 7 AM: 92.8% on time from 140 flights
- 8 AM: 91.3% on time from 836 flights
- 9 AM: 91.5% on time from 265 flights
- 10 AM: 90.7% on time from 325 flights
- 11 AM: 83.4% on time from 437 flights
- 12 PM: 71.9% on time from 460 flights
- 1 PM: 72.2% on time from 270 flights
- 2 PM: 68.8% on time from 419 flights
- 3 PM: 68.8% on time from 406 flights
- 4 PM: 63.9% on time from 372 flights
- 5 PM: 67.5% on time from 394 flights
- 6 PM: 64.1% on time from 462 flights
- 7 PM: 67.7% on time from 406 flights
- 8 PM: 67.1% on time from 397 flights
- 9 PM: 78.5% on time from 233 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MSY → HOU runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
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 → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MSY → HOU, at 56.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.3% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 66.2%.
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 | 7,035 | 78.7% | 1.12% | -5 min | 5.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 12.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.0%
- Feb: 84.2%
- Mar: 71.2%
- Apr: 79.3%
- May: 69.0%
- Jun: 68.9%
- Jul: 69.6%
- Aug: 85.8%
- Sep: 85.6%
- Oct: 82.0%
- Nov: 87.2%
- Dec: 83.8%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 18.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 74.4% from 180 flights
- August 2023: 88.4% from 182 flights
- September 2023: 84.8% from 159 flights
- October 2023: 86.8% from 222 flights
- November 2023: 88.6% from 202 flights
- December 2023: 88.4% from 207 flights
- January 2024: 69.8% from 196 flights
- February 2024: 84.3% from 178 flights
- March 2024: 76.5% from 190 flights
- April 2024: 81.7% from 190 flights
- May 2024: 67.9% from 199 flights
- June 2024: 75.6% from 177 flights
- July 2024: 56.7% from 178 flights
- August 2024: 88.4% from 191 flights
- September 2024: 86.0% from 179 flights
- October 2024: 79.7% from 199 flights
- November 2024: 88.2% from 188 flights
- December 2024: 81.0% from 186 flights
- January 2025: 84.1% from 185 flights
- February 2025: 84.2% from 185 flights
- March 2025: 81.0% from 200 flights
- April 2025: 82.1% from 200 flights
- May 2025: 77.6% from 205 flights
- June 2025: 64.8% from 180 flights
- July 2025: 73.6% from 180 flights
- August 2025: 80.3% from 178 flights
- September 2025: 85.8% from 176 flights
- October 2025: 79.1% from 206 flights
- November 2025: 84.7% from 197 flights
- December 2025: 81.6% from 192 flights
- January 2026: 90.1% from 185 flights
- February 2026: 84.2% from 185 flights
- March 2026: 56.3% from 200 flights
- April 2026: 74.0% from 193 flights
- May 2026: 60.9% from 193 flights
- June 2026: 66.7% from 192 flights
- July 2026: 72.7% from 200 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.2% against 80.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,035 MSY → HOU 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