Route profile
MSY→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New Orleans to Washington, 955 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 91% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,007 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSY → IAD arrives on time 90.1% of the time; the return trip, IAD → MSY, arrives on time 83.5% of the time, a 6.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MSY → IAD spends 19.8 minutes on the ground on a 955-mile trip: 12.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSY and 7.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 97% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 11 min early, and the worst tenth are only 25 minutes worse than that.
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 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where MSY to IAD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSY to IAD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 12 PM: 89.3% arrive on time, 10.4 points ahead of the 78.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.9 points.
MSY to IAD holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 89.8% on time to their 73.9%, a 15.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 15 points.
August is kinder to MSY to IAD than to routes of similar length: 94.4% on time against 74.8%, 19.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 17.9 points.
United Airlines does better on MSY to IAD than on its routes of similar length: 90.1% on time here, 80.5% there, 9.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 10.2 points.
MSY to IAD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 89.3% | routes of similar length | 78.9% | +10.4 pts | 867 here, 174,589 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 89.8% | routes of similar length | 73.9% | +15.9 pts | 266 here, 453,205 there |
| Month: August | 94.4% | routes of similar length | 74.8% | +19.6 pts | 162 here, 245,563 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 90.1% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | +9.6 pts | 1,944 here, 482,674 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 955 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
14 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 2,007 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAD after arriving from MSY.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 20% | High risk |
| 45 min | 9.7% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 6.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.3% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.5% | 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 1.44% of the time and diverts 0.15% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,975 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 14 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,007 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why MSY → IAD runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MSY → IAD. 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 | 1,976 | 90.1% | 1.47% | -11 min | 4.3% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1392 United Airlines | 8:00 AM | 765 | 90.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 5.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 92.0%
- Feb: 90.8%
- Mar: 90.0%
- Apr: 92.2%
- May: 82.8%
- Jun: 84.3%
- Jul: 86.5%
- Aug: 94.4%
- Sep: 91.7%
- Oct: 94.3%
- Nov: 91.6%
- Dec: 91.8%
May is historically the weakest month and August the strongest, a spread of 11.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 91.9% against 90.1% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,007 MSY → IAD 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